Radio România Internațional

Tag: disinfectants

  • The Week in Review, 23-29 May, 2016

    The Week in Review, 23-29 May, 2016

    Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos pays official visit to Washington


    US vice-president Joe Biden received at the White House Romanian Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos. The Strategic Partnership between the two countries and economic cooperation were the main topics on the agenda for talks, along with preparing the NATO Summit of Warsaw in July. Joe Biden has reiterated the United States support, both at bilateral and at NATO level, to consolidating security and defense in the Euro-Atlantic area. Prime Minister Ciolos has called on the US to deploy a NATO-led multi-national brigade on Romanias territory in order to strengthen the security of NATOs southeastern flank. Joe Biden highlighted that Romania has been and continues to be a trusted ally and partner of the United States, referring to both countries interest to access the untapped potential for developing the economic cooperation between Romania and the US. Dacian Ciolos also discussed with other Washington officials and with representatives of the US business sector, whom he encouraged to invest in Romania. The Prime Minister also met with members of the Romanian community.



    New Health Minister for Romania


    Ensuring cheap and effective medication in hospitals and reducing the incidence of hospital-acquired infections are among the priorities of the new Health Minister, Vlad Voiculescu. The Romanian official wants to use European funding to build three regional hospitals in Iasi, Cluj and Craiova. Vlad Voiculescu also wants to change management contracts, investment plans for hospital laboratories and to improve the Ministrys control mechanisms. All these measures, Vlad Voiculescu argues, are aimed at restoring patients trust in the Romanian healthcare system.



    Negotiations continue between trade unions in the education sector and the Government


    Negotiations between the Romanian Government and trade unions representing the education system continued this week. Previously, the Government had proposed an average increase of 10% in the salaries of the teaching staff, to come into effect starting August 2017. Unionists have rejected the Governments offer regarding the budget allocations to education, which they see as insufficient. Trade unions say that unless an agreement is reached at the forthcoming round of talks, they would stage a rally in Bucharest on June 1. In turn, Labour Minister Dragos Pislaru has announced that the implementation of the Governments ordinance on adjusting the salaries of some 6,000 employees in the education sector starting January 1, 2017 would entail a financial effort worth 800 million lei.



    NATO to focus on the Balkans


    NATO officials plan on focusing on the Balkans at the forthcoming NATO Summit to be hosted by Warsaw in July. NATO Assistant Secretary General Sorin Ducaru says Montenegros NATO accession could create the premises for restoring stability in the region. NATO is currently facing the most complex challenges and risks since the Cold War, coming from the east and the south, Sorin Ducaru added. Romania currently has 690 military deployed in NATO operations abroad.



    Bucharest hosts plenary session of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance


    The working definition of anti-Semitism was adopted at the plenary session of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance hosted by Bucharest between May 23 and 26. Romania is holding the presidency of this Alliance from 2016 to 2017. The 31 member states of the Alliance reconfirmed through this decision their commitment to observing the Stockholm Declaration and to making efforts to fight anti-Semitism. 240 experts and decision makers talked about policies and projects in the field of education, research and Holocaust remembrance from the perspective of their contemporary political relevance.



    Romania does not agree with amending the EU directive on posted workers


    Romania does not agree with the modification of the EU directive on posted workers, the Romanian deputy prime minister and minister of economy and trade, Costin Borc said in Brussels. He pointed out that the Romanian workers should not be discriminated against. The European Commission has proposed the modification of the ceiling for salaries to which posted workers are entitled. The current directive stipulates that posted workers have the right to a minimum salary. 11 EU members have expressed opposition to the modification of the directive. Given the circumstances, the European Commission has to revise its proposal or to withdraw it.



    Cluj is the venue for the Transylvania International Film Festival


    The 15th edition of the Transylvania International Film Festival- TIFF has opened in Cluj Napoca, in western Romania, with the film “6.9 on the Richter scale screened for the first time in the presence of its director, Nae Caranfil. 248 productions will be screened until June 5. For the first time at the TIFF, the film “Dogs, winner of this years critics prize at the Cannes Festival, will be screened. The special guest of the 2016 edition of the TIFF is actress Sophia Loren, who came to Romania for the first time. She will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award.

  • The Week in Review 16 – 22 May

    The Week in Review 16 – 22 May

    The diluted disinfectants scandal gets bigger

    The most recent scandal in the Romanian health-care sector, concerning the use of diluted disinfectants in hospitals, has put health on the agenda of the countrys Higher Defense Council meeting of May 27th. In a press conference on Thursday, Romanias President Klaus Iohannis said he had made the decision as the scandal revealed the huge damage that corruption and indolence could cause in the public healthcare sector. The head of state also said the guilty people must the found and held accountable in court. The scandal broke out after a journalistic investigation revealed how the concentration of the disinfectants provided by the Hexi Pharma company to healthcare units across the country was ten times lower than the standard. The controls conducted in dozens of hospitals confirmed the conclusions of the journalistic investigation. The situation was so serious that in some hospitals surgery was halted for days. Overwhelmed by the situation, the Health Minister Patriciu Achimas Cadariu resigned. He was replaced by economist Vlad Voiculescu, a former cabinet director with the Finance Ministry. He has been involved in many charity events in the sector along the years. In the meantime, the Prosecutor Generals Office has started prosecution against Hexi Pharma, charged with foiling disease prevention and counterfeiting. Among other things, the office has to establish for how long such disinfectants were used, as the Romanian Intelligence Service says it has informed the legal beneficiaries– hospitals, the presidency, the Prime Minster, ministers, prefects and county councils – for years, about the poor quality of those substances.



    The draft emergency ordinance on salaries in the budget sector enters public debate


    The draft emergency ordinance on salaries in the public sector was launched for public debate on Tuesday. The main amendments concern a full restructuring of the pay system in healthcare and education and introducing a bonus system based on performance criteria, benefiting the two sectors employees as of January 1st, 2017. The draft also provides for eliminating salary gaps for equal positions and workloads within the same unit. The Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos has stated that the bill will correct some of the systems flaws, but not all of them. According to the Labour Minister Dragos Paslaru, as a result of implementing these measures, over 1.2 million state employees will have bigger salaries, and nobodys salary will be cut. The president of the National Trade Union Bloc Dumitru Costin says, however, that only 400,000 out of the 1.2 million state employees will benefit from pay rises. Trade unions are unhappy with the bill and threaten with protests. Trade unionists from the education sector have announced they will hold a protest rally on June 1st, and those in the local public administration are threatening with strikes and boycotting local elections.




    Romanias President Klaus Iohannis pays formal visit to Lithuania

    Romanias President Klaus Iohannis has paid a two-day official visit to Lithuania, where he held talks with Vilnius officials about bilateral ties, migration, regional security and the common stand that the two countries will take at the NATO summit in Warsaw, due in July. After talks with his counterpart Dalia Grybauskaite, Klaus Iohannis said that Bucharest and Vilnius were linked by a strong bond, based on common interests, views and values. Romania and Lithuania have a similar stand regarding migration, as both countries believe that Europe must protect its borders, by strengthening control on the external borders, Iohannis also said. He stressed that imposing sanctions on the EU member countries that oppose the relocation of migrants was no solution to the issue. Also, the Romanian head of state said that a balanced approach was needed as regards the consolidation of NATOs eastern flank.


    The Romanian Village Museum in Bucharest celebrates its 80th anniversary


    The Romanian Village Museum in Bucharest, one of the oldest open-air museums in Europe and one of the most visited places in Romania, on Tuesday celebrated its 80th anniversary by inaugurating a new wing. Sociologist Dimitrie Gusti was the one who had the idea, back in the interwar period, to bring to the capital dozens of houses from all across Romania. Currently, the museum is host to 370 monuments and 60,000 heritage items. Conceived as a sociological museum, its mission is to present visitors with realities of village life, as it used to be or still is experienced by Romanian peasants. Some 500,000 Romanian and foreign tourists visit the museum every year.




    CFR Cluj wins the 2016 Romanian Football Cup
    CFR Cluj has won the 78th edition of the Romanian Football Cup. On Tuesday, on the National Arena, CFR Cluj defeated Dinamo Bucharest 5 – 4 after penalty shootouts. This is how the squad has put down a fourth cup on its record sheet. Dinamo, on the other hand, has 13 such trophies. The game had a special significance for Dinamo, given that, recently, its Cameroonian player Patrick Ekeng has died on the field because of a heart disease. The Romanian Football Cup is the second trophy awarded this season, after Astra Giurgiu won the champion title.

  • The Hospital Disinfectants Case still under Scrutiny

    The Hospital Disinfectants Case still under Scrutiny

    Hexi Pharma, the company where the scandal concerning the use of diluted disinfectants started, has withdrawn its insolvency request, filed with the Bucharest Tribunal. Accused of diluting the sanitizers it provided to many hospitals across the country, the company is now being prosecuted by the General Prosecutor’s Office, for indirect participation in committing the crime of foiling disease prevention.



    Last week, company representatives filed an insolvency request, saying the company could no longer deal with its many commercial and fiscal debts, because of the existing unfavorable economic situation. The company said it had 23 million lei in debts to the state budget and to various providers, and also unpaid invoices to two foreign companies, amounting to some 20 million Euros.



    However, the company changed its mind and on Tuesday judges were informed that the company had withdrawn its insolvency request. The decision was made after the judges, who accepted a request filed by prosecutors, took several precautionary measures concerning Hexi Pharma. Under this decision, Hexi Pharma is not allowed to start any liquidation procedure, to enter a merger, to divide or reduce its equity, to produce and sell biocides. Also, the company is banned from alienating any of its assets, to make payments and transfers, except for those for salaries and utilities. As regards the investigation into the diluted disinfectants case, it is running fast, the Romanian General Prosecutor Augustin Lazar has said.



    Augustin Lazar: “Within a reasonable timeframe we will be able to conduct an effective investigation and to clarify all this. In such a case, which the prosecutor knows is a serious one from the very date of notification, things run fast, as you can see yourselves. This is a matter of large-scale prosecution.”



    In the investigation into the case concerning Hexi Pharma, prosecutors are even conducting physical and chemical tests on the incriminated products. Augustin Lazar has stated that the case benefits from all the necessary resources, including from the Public Ministry and the Judiciary Police, and the aim is to identify and hold the guilty ones accountable. In the meantime, the activity of the Hexi Pharma company has been also checked by the National Fiscal Administration Agency, which is not looking into the company’s ties with foreign companies.


  • 18 May, 2016

    18 May, 2016

    PRESIDENT – Romanian President Klaus Iohannis holds talks today in Vilnius with his Lithuanian counterpart, Dalia Grybauskaite, on regional security and the common position their two countries will have at the upcoming NATO summit in Warsaw. The head of state said that a balanced approach was needed to consolidate both the northern and the eastern flank of NATO. Speaking about the refugee crisis, the Romanian head of state said that sanctions against EU states who oppose refugee relocation did not solve anything. As an alternative, Klaus Iohannis proposed strengthening the EUs external borders, referring mainly to the FRONTEX agency, in charge of controlling the outer borders of the union, to which Romania is the second largest contributor after Germany. In turn, the Lithuanian leader said that Romania and Lithuania had similar positions on this issue.



    PROTEST – Romanian trade unions in education are holding on June 1 a march, as announced by union leadership. Employees in education are angry at the draft government order on the structuring of state wages, which went under public debate. PM Dacian Ciolos said that this order would only partially correct the dysfunctionality in the system.



    FOOTBALL – CFR Cluj won the 78th Romanias Cup in football on Tuesday on the National Arena. On the National Arena in Bucharest defeated Dinamo Bucharest 5-4 in the penalty shootout. This is CFRs fourth cup, while Dinamo had gathered 13 of them. The game was particularly important for Dinamo, being its first days since the death 10 days ago of its player Patrick Ekeng, who collapsed on the pitch because of heart problems, expiring shortly after. Romanias Cup is the second trophy this season, after Astra Giurgiu won the title of champion. Steaua Bucharest and Concordia Chiajna contend for the League Cup, the third domestic competition this season.



    DISINFECTANTS – The Romanian Defense Ministry announced today that it has been using subpar disinfectants sold by the Hexi Pharma company, which is at the center of the scandal around diluted disinfectants used for years in Romanian hospitals. The ministry said that it had used the products both within the country and in its theaters of deployment, but that it is now using different disinfectants. According to their press release, the ministry obtained the Hexi Pharma products by centralized public tender.



    COUNCIL – Undersecretary for Strategic Affairs Daniel Ionita, with the Foreign Ministry, leads the Romanian delegation attending the EC Council of Ministers, taking place today in Sofia. The topics under debate are democratic security for all citizens on the continent, human rights in conflict areas, and Europes response to the migrant crisis. The meeting in Sofia also marks the handover of the rotating presidency of the Committee from Bulgaria to Estonia for the next six months.



    TENNIS – Two Romanian players are today in the second qualifying round in Roland Garros, the years second Grand Slam. Marius Copil (190th seeded) plays against Belgian Kimmer Coppejans, 196th seeded, while Adrian Ungur, 204th seeded, plays against Hungarian Marton Fucsovics, 205th seeded. In the womens games, two Romanian female players won games in the inaugural round of the qualifiers. Sorana Carstea, 99th seeded, easily overcame in two sets Chinese player Yuxuan Zhang, 167th seeded, while Andreea Mitu, 114th seeded, defeated in three sets Polish player Paula Kania, 148th seeded.



    FILM – Romanian director Cristian Mungius latest film, Baccalaureate, will have its Romanian premiere on Thursday, the same day it has its world premiere as part of the official selection for the Cannes film festival. A part of the film crew will be at the premiere in Bucharest, with the red carpet ceremony being broadcast live. Cristian Mungiu is at his third nomination at Cannes. He won the Palme dOr in 2007, as well as awards for script and female lead in 2012. Other Romanian films nominated at this edition are Cristi Puius Sieranevada, and Dogs by Bogdan Mirica, both of them critically acclaimed by the French press.

  • May 11, 2016

    May 11, 2016

    HEALTHCARE – Hexi Pharma, the company involved in the Romanian hospital disinfectant scandal, applied for insolvency with the Bucharest Tribunal. Following inspections checking the quality of the disinfectants used in public hospitals, in tens of Romanian healthcare units non-compliant samples were found. The checks were triggered by a journalist investigation that revealed that the substances provided by Hexi Pharma were even ten times diluted compared to the standard concentration. The General Prosecutors Office initiated an investigation in the case. The PM Dacian Cioloş has said that as of today the first concentration reports concerning the Hexi Pharma samples will be available.




    IMF – The International Monetary Fund will make public today the conclusions of the Board on the latest mission report in Bucharest, of March 2016. The IMF team stated at the time that Romania had made significant progress in addressing the imbalances and resuming economic growth, but that the tax relaxation at a time when consumption is already on the rise and the adoption of legislative initiatives like the debt discharge law jeopardise these accomplishments. International experts advised Romanian authorities to maintain prudent policies and resume structural reforms so as to keep the budget deficit under control, to ensure the efficiency and restructuring of state-owned companies and to improve administration. Romania does not have an on-going agreement with the IMF at present.




    ANTI-CORRUPTION – Romanias deputy PM Costin Borc and the Justice Minister Raluca Prună are taking part on Wednesday and Thursday in London in the Anti-Corruption Summit and the conference that precedes it. According to the Romanian Justice Ministry, taking part in the Summit hosted by the British PM David Cameron are international leaders and representatives of civil society and the business community. The participants will discuss topics like governmental transparency, the international enforcement of anti-corruption laws, means to strengthen international institutions and corporate data confidentiality.




    BREXIT – The GDP of the European Union without the UK is estimated to drop from over 14 trillion euro, as it was in 2015, to 12.1 trillion, according to DPA. Exports will likely drop from 1.8 to 1.56 trillion euro, whereas imports — from 1.7 to 1.47 trillion euro. Also, the EU budget is estimated to fall from nearly 144 billion euro, earmarked for 2016, to around 124 billion euro. The number of official languages in the EU would stay at 24. On June 23 Britons are to vote, in a referendum, on the countrys EU membership, DPA says.




    CANNES – Five Romanian films are taking part in this years International Film Festival in Cannes, which begins today accompanied by exceptional security measures, following the terror attacks in Paris. Graduation by Cristian Mungiu and Sierra Nevada by Cristi Puiu, both of the two directors already awarded in Cannes, compete for the Palme d’Or, whereas “Dogs, the feature film debut of Bogdan Mirică, was selected in the “Un Certain Regard section. In the short film section the Romanian directors Cătălin Rotaru and Gabi Virginia Şarga have entered the film “4:15 P.M. The end of the world. Finally, this years Cinéfondation selection includes the short film “All Rivers Flow into the Sea by Alexandru Badea.




    TENNIS – The top ranking Romanian tennis player, Simona Halep, no. 5 ATP, is playing today against Russias Daria Gavrilova, in the second round of the tournament in Rome. In the same stage of the competition, the Romanian Irina Begu (no. 35 WTA) takes on Viktoria Azarenka, of Belarus. On Saturday, Halep won the final of the WTA tournament in Madrid, after defeating the Slovakian Dominika Cibulkova 6-2, 6-4. In the quarter-finals she had defeated Irina Begu.

  • Healthcare, a priority of the Cioloş Government

    Healthcare, a priority of the Cioloş Government

    The Romanian PM Dacian Cioloş believes that amendments are needed to the healthcare law because the current legislation frequently prevents the authorities from finalizing various projects. The PM also identified legislative problems related to the hospital managers’ responsibility. The government intends to use the next 6 months to take structural measures, even if they cannot reform the healthcare system, but at least they will reveal the flaws in the system. Previously, the government spokesman, Dan Suciu, had announced that healthcare would become the top priority of the Cioloş Government.



    On short term, the PM decided to send the Control Body to investigate the decisions of the Biocide Committee within the Health Ministry, a committee that establishes the tender books and the criteria for disinfectants used in hospitals. The results of the investigation, if negative, will be forwarded to the Prosecutor’s Office, that has already signaled a number of problems in the system that will be used in the investigation, Dan Suciu added. He added that the Government was preparing a decision by means of which to allot funds for the urgent accreditation of a lab at the ICECHIM Chemistry Institute.



    Dan Suciu: “We want to find out if all criteria were observed as well as all the standards for the accredited disinfection procedures. The government wants to urgently allot funds for the accreditation of the ICECHIM lab. It is unacceptable not to have certification in terms of hospital tests”.



    Dan Suciu also said that the PM Cioloş called on the Health Minister, Patriciu Achimaş-Cadariu, to speed up the implementation of the measures against in-hospital infections, measures announced last week. According to Dan Suciu Romania has an old hospital infrastructure and new medical units should be built. The Government intends to start a deep reform of the health infrastructure, and to this end, several feasibility studies have been completed for the construction of two new hospitals — one for children and one for cardio-vascular diseases.



    The authorities will also accelerate the European-funded projects for the construction of 3 regional hospitals in Craiova (in the south), Iasi (northeast) and Cluj (northwest). Dan Suciu added that they should rethink the way in which the management contracts in public hospitals are observed and the way in which hospitals are subordinated to central and local authorities. He also believes that all the measures announced by the Government could boost people’s confidence in the healthcare system. The PM thinks the reform of the healthcare system is slow also because of the political system, given that in the past 6-7 years Romania has had 10 different healthcare ministers.

  • The Disinfectants Scandal

    The Disinfectants Scandal

    Within months of the deadly fire at the Colectiv nightclub in Bucharest, which killed 64 people and raised questions regarding the flaws in the healthcare system, a new scandal involving the Health Ministry has surfaced. An independent investigation by journalists with the Gazeta Sporturilor newspaper revealed that the main producer and distributor of disinfectants used in Romanian hospitals was supplying products with a much lower concentration than stipulated on the label. The authorities collected samples from hospitals, and tests revealed however that the disinfectants used by the medical and nursing staff were efficient in 95% of the cases. Health Minister Patriciu Achimas-Cadariu gave assurances that patients are in safe hands for the time being.



    Still, the investigation into the case is far from being over. Romania presently has no possibility to run physical and chemical testing on the disinfectants used in hospitals. Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos has called on the Health Minister to come up with a solution in this respect in the shortest time possible.



    In another development, the Prosecutor Generals Office has launched its own investigation. Of the 3,500 samples collected from the hands of medical staff, surfaces and objects in 300 hospitals, less than 5% tested non-compliant.



    Patriciu Achimas Cadariu: “The testing was carried out in the laboratories of healthcare units, public health directorates and in private laboratories. We tested to see how the disinfectant was used in the cleaning process and whether it was successful in destroying bacteria on hands and objects.



    The company in question is supplying 350 hospitals all across Romania, and its antiseptics are being used in over 2,000 operating theaters, as the manufacturer itself claims. The products are used in surgical hand scrubbing and to clean operating tables and disinfect scalpels. Moreover, they are also used in cleaning regular wards and ICU.



    Company representatives have put the distribution on hold and taken steps to shed light on this matter. The company has collected samples from multiple batches of disinfectants and sent them for testing in laboratories in Germany. One of the immediate effects of these tests is that hospital managers may now freely discard antiseptics that have proved ineffective. In a 2014 report of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, Romania ranked first in terms of the resistance of healthcare-associated bacteria to any type of medical treatment. According to official statistics, some 3.8 million Romanians receive in-hospital care every year, and one-fifth of them are children.