Radio România Internațional

Tag: health-care

  • April 7, 2023

    April 7, 2023

    Defense. The President of Romania, Klaus Iohannis, convened the meeting of the Supreme Council of National Defense, which will take place on Tuesday, April 11, in Bucharest. The agenda of the Council meeting includes topics related to developments regarding the security situation in the Black Sea Region, in the context of Russias aggression on Ukraine, and external interventions on the democratic process in the Republic of Moldova (ex-Soviet, predominantly Romanian-speaking). Also, the development of the Romanian military aviation will be analyzed. During the Council meeting, other topical issues in the field of national security will be addressed.



    NATO. The peoples and politicians of the allied countries “understood the need to invest more in defense” in order to ensure interoperability, said on Friday, the NATO Deputy Secretary General Mircea Geoană, on a visit to the Multinational Brigade South-East in Craiova (south). Also, Geoana spoke about the support given to Ukraine. “We are helping Ukraine, because the Ukrainians, with our help, are not only defending their country, their sovereignty, but they are also fighting for us. We will continue to help Ukraine to the end”. Under the operational control of the Multinational Division South-East, the Command of the Multinational Brigade South-East has the mission to ensure the command and control of a NATO Collective Defense operation, in order to contribute in this way to the strengthening of the South-East flank of the Alliance, to the security of the territory and the population of the member states.



    Budget. The Romanian government is looking for solutions to cover a hole in the budget of 20 billion lei, so that the deficit does not exceed the target of 4.4% of the GDP. The leaders of the ruling coalition claim that there are unjustified expenses in many ministries and state institutions, and the Ministry of Finance must reduce the waste of public funds. Liberal Prime Minister Nicolae Ciucă has stressed that salaries or other types of income will not be cut, but he asked the Minister of Finance, Adrian Câciu, to propose concrete measures to reduce expenses in the next nine months. The Social Democrat leader Marcel Ciolacu also spoke about a reform in spending public money, in parallel with measures to reduce tax evasion. Adrian Câciu said that the adjustment of budget expenses will not affect the social and economic packages developed by the coalition, nor the investments. National Bank specialists consider, on the other hand, that against the background of the high values ​​of the current account deficit and the budget deficit, the money from the National Recovery and Resilience Plan represents an extraordinary opportunity for the economy.



    Protest. Romanian farmers are today protesting in Bucharest and in 18 counties across the country, dissatisfied with the compensation proposed by the European Commission for the damage caused by the tax-free import of cheap grains from Ukraine. Farmers demand that the European Union abandon the special regime applied to imports from Ukraine, which – in their opinion – seriously disrupts the Romanian market. Bulgarian farmers are also protesting, again, today, including by blocking traffic in the roundabout towards the Ruse-Giurgiu bridge, which connects Bulgaria to Romania. They say that Romanian farmers will join their protest, on the other side of the bridge. Moreover, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has warned Romanian citizens transiting or intending to travel to Bulgaria that farmers from that country will organize protests in the customs offices of Ruse – Giurgiu and Kardam – Negru Vodă, including by blocking road access to the customs offices with agricultural equipment, as well as the traffic on adjacent roads.



    Health-care. The Minister of Health, Alexandru Rafila, says that the medical system in Romania needs sufficient, well-trained staff who can respond professionally and empathetically to the needs of patients. At the same time, in his message on the occasion of the World Health Day, on April 7, the minister states that investments are needed in health – in hospitals, in specialist clinics or in family doctors offices. This year, the motto of the World Health Day is “Health for all!”. In another move, the Minister of Health has stated that the number of respiratory viruses and SARS-COV-2 infections has started to decrease, and Romania has sufficient stocks of medicines for the necessary treatments. According to Alexandru Rafila, there were 6,900 cases of COVID last week, with a rate of infection 10% lower than the previous week. However, the number of deaths is still quite high, 59.



    Tennis. The Romanian tennis player Irina Begu was defeated by the first -seed American Jessica Pegula, 7-5, 4-6, 6-4 in the fourth round of the WTA 500 tournament in Charleston, South Carolina, with more than 780 thousand dollars in prize money. She lost the match after 2 hours and a half, although she had won four games in the decisive set. (MI)


  • Relaxation and the Risk Bonus

    Relaxation and the Risk Bonus

    In the almost four months that have passed since the first case of coronavirus infection was reported in Romania, some 23 thousand people have tested positive and 1450 have died of Covid-19. Early this month, the number of new cases was on a downward trend, and everybody was hoping the number would keep decreasing, and life would come back to normal. In the past week, though, the trend has changed, and there are some 2 to 3 hundred new cases reported every day. The increase in the number of new cases follows a relaxation of restrictions and its no surprise, said on Radio Romania the health minister Nelu Tataru.



    Nelu Tataru: “There have been three periods of relaxation, and we expect to have now a progressive, not exponential increase, and this is what is happening, because there are still ministers orders in place, which set certain norms for the carrying out and functioning of activities and operations. As long as we observe these norms and rules, we can say that the evolution is favorable, even if a slight increase in the number of new cases has been reported, and therefore we can think of further measures to ease restrictions as of July 1st.”



    For those in the health-care sector, though, there is no relaxation in the fight against Covid-19. On the other hand, at the end of so many exhausting weeks, some of them have voiced disappointment over what the trade unions in the field have described as “the unfair way in which the risk bonus has been awarded”. This bonus, covered from European funds, is the equivalent of 500 Euro, which political decision-makers in Romania decided at the start of the pandemic to grant to those working in the hospitals dealing with cases of Covid-19.



    “The employees expectations have been very high, following the health ministers public statements, who said that the staff working in the COVID hospitals would get the bonus”, trade unionists have stated. However, “the bonus was granted only to those who transported and got into direct contact with the Covid-19 patients, and not to all health-care staff who have carried out a strenuous activity over this period”, the unionists have also stressed.



    In order to avoid other interpretations and to prevent any unfairness, on Wednesday, the Chamber of Deputies, as a decision-making body on this matter, endorsed a bill which stipulates that this bonus is to be granted over the period of alert as well, not only over the state of emergency period, and the categories of staff benefiting from this bonus are clearly defined.



    Therefore, the medical-sanitary and auxiliary medical staff, including the specialized personnel from the paraclinical medical-sanitary structures and the paramedical personnel, including the one from civil structures, as well as the operative field intervention personnel from the ambulance services directly involved in transporting, equipping, assessing, diagnosing and treating patients suspect of and/or diagnosed with Covid-19 will benefit from this bonus. (M.Ignatescu)

  • The health-care system must be modernized

    The health-care system must be modernized

    It’s quite obvious that, after this pandemic, we will have to seriously think about the Romanian health-care system, said Prime Minister Ludovic Orban on Tuesday,
    when he attended a debate on this topic. He stressed the fact that the
    situation created by the new coronavirus highlighted things that were not
    working, things that must be fixed and the fact that, for a long period of
    time, the health-care system in Romania had been treated like a Cinderella. The
    PM said that the infrastructure was old and creating ‘lots of problems’, as very
    little investment was promoted.


    Ludovic Orban also stressed the fact that the health-care
    system in Romania is chronically under-financed, counting on the contributions
    of a small number of Romanian citizens, because there are many categories of
    citizens that are exempt from paying, although they benefit from such services.
    Moreover, the Prime Minister also stressed, the level of digitization in the
    system is extremely low.

    PM Ludovic Orban: The health card system, and that is a known
    fact, is collapsing. The digitization level in health care is extremely low.
    We ourselves, over this period, have been faced with the need for digitization, with all the data that we had to manage in a very short period
    of time and lots of information that had to be transmitted fast. It’s quite
    obvious that things need to be changed immediately.


    The Prime Minister also recalled a positive thing during
    the pandemic, namely that the medical system adapted quite rapidly and had a
    prompt reaction in the fight against Covid-19. He also highlighted the need for
    measures regarding hospital management. It’s clear that the procedures,
    although they exist, are not known, they have not been really implemented and
    hospital management is, in most cases, done without any proper training. Also,
    there is no real authority to impose the right rules in hospitals, and that is
    why there is a polycentric system at hospital level, the head of Government
    also said.


    Ludovic Orban also stressed that with regard to the medicines
    policy, the Government will have to intervene quite seriously in the coming
    period. Maintaining this clawback system, without rethinking it, led to the
    disappearance from the Romanian market of hundreds, maybe thousands of
    medicines, Orban explained. He said that in the coming period, investments in
    health will be a priority for the Government, alongside investments in
    transport and energy infrastructure, education, communications, research and
    development.


    Also on Tuesday, the Health Minister Nelu Tataru talked
    about a number of issues facing the health-care system, such as politicization, poor
    management, legislation, the lack of a coherent investment policy and the
    medicines policy. We must think of a health pact, we need professionals, the
    minister said.


    Nelu Tataru has also stated that Romania is on a downward
    trend as regards new cases of infection with the new coronavirus, and the
    number of serious cases is also decreasing. Community spread of the virus is
    low, and the number of tests conducted across the country has diminished, the
    minister said.


    The Health Ministry has announced that a sero-prevalence
    study will be conducted over June-September 2020, with the aim of monitoring
    the spread and thus take the necessary protection measures in the future. According
    to estimates, some 29 thousand residual serums are to be collected and
    analyzed. (M.Ignatescu)

  • May 1, 2018 UPDATE

    May 1, 2018 UPDATE

    MILITARY – On Tuesday, the US Ambassador to Bucharest Hans Klemm voiced his deep regret over the wounding in Afghanistan on Monday of eight Romanian soldiers, during a patrol mission. The US ambassador conveyed his and the USs message of appreciation for the Romanian soldiers participation in the NATO missions, aimed at restoring freedom and democracy in areas seriously affected by war. President Klaus Iohannis, Prime Minister Viorica Dancila and Defense Minister Mihai Fifor also sent messages of encouragement and support to the families of the wounded soldiers. Seven of them have already been released from hospital, and the eighth has been sent to Germany, for further investigations and treatment. Romania is taking part in the NATO mission in Afghanistan with 625 military staff, while another 300 soldiers are deployed in operations carried out under the EU, UN and OSCE command in different regions of the world. So far, 29 Romanian soldiers have died and 185 have been wounded in operations abroad.



    PROTEST – The Romanian Health Minister Sorina Pintea will hold a fresh meeting with trade union representatives on Wednesday, in order to find solutions for their discontent. Last week, thousands of employees in the sector attended a protest meeting in Bucharest. Several staff categories in the health-care sector say their incomes have dropped as a result of the implementation of the latest salary regulations. Among other things, they call for the elimination of the 30% cap on benefits. Trade unionists have announced that last weeks meeting will be followed by a warning strike on May 7th, which could be followed by an all-out strike on the 11th of May.



    FRONTEX – A Romanian Coast Guard vessel will patrol along the European borders in the Aegean Sea for three months. The ship has left the port of Mangalia, on the Romanian Black Sea Coast, to join the operation organized by FRONTEX (the European Border and Coast Guard Agency). The crew, made up of 26 border police officers, will carry out individual patrol, research, search and rescue missions. Also, the Border Police will post one officer at the operations Coordination Center in Piraeus, to maintain the link between the Romanian ship and the bodies that are taking part in the mission. The European operation is aimed at managing illegal migration in the Aegean Sea.



    1 MAY – While in other countries across the world the International Labour Day is used as an opportunity to ask for pay rises or better working conditions, in Romania people celebrate May 1st by traveling, hiking or just partying. As early as Friday afternoon, dozens of thousands of tourists, mostly Romanian, but also foreign, hurried to the mountain, sea and Delta resorts. On the Black Sea Coast, the main attraction were the fancy clubs in Mamaia, while in the Danube Delta, which is part of the UNESCO heritage, tourists took advantage of the beautiful weather to spend time in a unique natural place. Also crowded were the resorts in Prahova Valley, Sinaia in particular. Celebrating May 1st is tradition for most Romanians, and, as regards food, one particular must these days are the so called mititei, made of minced meat and herbs. According to specialists in the field, during this years May 1st mini-holiday, Romanians grilled no less than 30 million mititei, which is 15% more than last year.



    EUROVISION – “The Humans”, the band representing Romania at the 2018 Eurovision contest, have arrived in Lisbon and are rehearsing for the big day. In the coming days, the Romanian artists will also take part in the concerts included in the programme and also in a special event hosted by the Romanian Embassy in Portugal. On May 10th, “The Humans” will perform, in the second semi-final, a song titled “Good Bye”. If they manage to qualify, “The Humans” will take part in the final, on May 12th. The 2018 Eurovision Song Contest will bring on the Lisbon stage representatives of 43 countries. (translated by Mihaela Ignatescu)

  • May 1, 2018

    May 1, 2018

    1 MAY – While in other countries
    across the world the International Labour Day is used an opportunity to ask for
    pay rises or better working conditions, in Romania people celebrate May 1st
    by traveling, hiking or just partying. As early as Friday afternoon, dozens of
    thousands of tourists, mostly Romanian, but also foreign, hurried to the
    mountain, sea and Delta resorts. On the Black Sea Coast, the main attraction
    are the fancy clubs in Mamaia, while in the Danube Delta, which is part of the
    UNESCO heritage, tourists are taking advantage of the beautiful weather to
    spend time in a unique natural place. Also crowded are the resorts in Prahova
    Valley, Sinaia in particular. Celebrating May 1st is tradition for
    most Romanians, and, as regards food, one particular must these days are the so
    called ‘mititei’, made of minced meat and herbs. According to specialists in
    the field, during this year’s May 1st mini-holiday, Romanians will
    grill no less than 30 million ‘mititei’, which is 15% more than last year.






    PROTEST – The Romanian Health Minister
    Sorina Pintea will hold a fresh meeting with trade union representatives on
    Wednesday, in order to find solutions for their discontent. Last week,
    thousands of employees in the sector attended a protest meeting in Bucharest.
    Several staff categories in the health-care sector say their incomes have
    dropped as a result of the implementation of the latest salary regulations.
    Among other things, they call for the elimination of the 30% cap on benefits.
    Trade unionists have announced that last week’s meeting will be followed by a
    warning strike on May 7th, which could be followed by an all-out
    strike on the 11th of May.








    FRONTEX – A Romanian Coast Guard vessel
    will patrol along the European borders in the Aegean Sea for three months. The
    ship has left the port of Mangalia, on the Romanian Black Sea Coast, to join
    the operation organized by FRONTEX (the European Border and Coast Guard
    Agency). The crew, made up of 26 border police officers, will carry out
    individual patrol, research, search and rescue missions. Also, the Border
    Police will post one officer at the operation’s Coordination Center in Piraeus,
    to maintain the link between the Romanian ship and the bodies that are taking
    part in the mission. The European operation is aimed at managing illegal migration
    in the Aegean Sea.






    AFGHANISTAN – The eight Romanian soldiers
    who got wounded in a suicide attack in Afghanistan on Monday are stable, and
    they are getting medical care in Kandahar. The Romanian Defense Minister Mihai
    Fifor has announced that he is permanently updated on their condition.
    President Klaus Iohannis and Prime Minister Viorica Dancila have sent messages
    of encouragement and support to the families of the wounded soldiers. Romania
    is taking part in the NATO mission in Afghanistan with 625 military staff,
    while another 300 soldiers are deployed in operations carried out under the EU,
    UN and OSCE command in different regions of the world. So far, 29 Romanian
    soldiers have died and 185 have been wounded in operations abroad.










    EUROVISION – The Humans, the band representing
    Romania at the 2018 Eurovision contest, have arrived in Lisbon and are
    rehearsing for the big day. In the coming days, the Romanian artists will also
    take part in the concerts included in the programme and also in a special event
    hosted by the Romanian Embassy in Portugal. On May 10th, The
    Humans will perform, in the second semi-final, a song titled Good Bye. If
    they manage to qualify, The Humans will take part in the final, on May 12th.
    The 2018 Eurovision Song Contest will
    bring on the Lisbon stage representatives of 43 countries.






    TABLE TENNIS – The Romanian women’s table
    tennis team is today playing against the teams of Taiwan and North Korea, in
    the last matches that are part of Group C of the World Championships hosted by
    Halmstat, Sweden. Yesterday, Romania defeated Poland 3-1. North Korea is
    currently topping the rankings, followed by Taiwan and Romania, which have the
    same number of points. In the men’s competition, in Group A, Romania’s team was
    defeated by Germany 3-nil on Monday, but also won the match against Slovenia,
    3-1. Today, Romania is playing against Egypt and tomorrow it will take on the
    team of Hong Kong. In this group, Romania ranks fourth, on equal points with
    Slovenia. The teams ranking first, second and third in each group will qualify
    for the next round, and the winners of the fourth groups will go straight to
    the quarters. (translated by Mihaela Ignatescu)

  • Budget Adjustment in Romania

    Budget Adjustment in Romania

    On Wednesday, the Romanian Government
    approved the first adjustment of the state budget and the social insurance
    budget for 2016, in a bid to ensure the financial resources needed for the
    implementation of the measures adopted by Parliament. The measures are aimed
    mainly at ensuring the payment of welfare benefits, without however
    jeopardizing the macroeconomic balance. Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos has stated
    that the budget adjustment is mainly aimed at funding public policies, even if
    2016 is an election year in Romania.

    Dacian Ciolos: Our goal is to finance the announced public policies, to meet real needs, not
    to win votes to the detriment of effective budgeting.


    The
    main fields to benefit from the adjustment are health-care, education and
    welfare. The health ministry will get an extra 125 million Euro to pay
    increased salaries for the medical staff. Also, additional amounts will be used
    to fund health-care programs and to ensure subsidized medicines. One priority
    in the field is to combat hospital-acquired infections, said the Ministry of Health
    Vlad Voiculescu.


    Vlad Voiculescu: 4.6 million lei was added to the budget’s program, to cover interventions such
    as active testing, screening for all patients newly admitted in intensive care
    units, for all the patients who need intensive care for more than seven days
    and also for all the patients hospitalized in the same ward as a person known
    to suffer from a hospital-acquired infection. Also, we have a budget for
    professional training on hospital-acquired infections and the careful use of
    antibiotics.

    In
    education, the allocated amount, standing at some 220 million Euro, is used as
    of August 1st to cover the increased salaries of the teaching
    staff in higher-secondary and
    tertiary education. Programs for students are also envisaged. Here is the
    Education Minister Mircea Dumitru with more:

    For the first time, the
    Education Ministry will ensure free school-books for students in the 11th
    and 12th grades. This entails the spending of some 32 million lei
    for 3.6 new school books.


    The
    Labour Ministry will get some 620 million Euro for welfare benefits. Half of
    the amount is to be allocated for child-rearing benefits, allowances for
    children and people with disabilities and other forms of welfare. The other
    half will cover pensions until the end of the year. Also, the budget adjustment
    earmarked money for this fall’s parliamentary elections, but also for
    agriculture, environment, defense and transportation.

  • The Health-Care System and the Health Cards

    The Health-Care System and the Health Cards

    Advocated for about seven years, the idea of national health cards took shape eventually and last autumn they started to be distributed. The cards include the patients’ identification data and medical history. “The Romanian healthcare system is a social one. Patients will not benefit from more or less healthcare services depending on their incomes or seniority. The health card is a first step forward in the reform of the healthcare system” said Oana Grigore, head of the press office of the Health Ministry in Bucharest. The purpose of the draft resolution is to render transparent and efficient the funds used in the health insurance system. The distribution of the cards should have been completed by November last year, but about one million cards have not reached the insured people yet. Mihaela Tanase, a spokesperson for the National Health Insurance House explains:



    “So far, over 12.5 million cards have already been distributed to the insured. About one million cards will return to the health insurance houses because postmen did not find the respective people at home. They will be distributed by family physicians. People who will lose the card will have to pay for another card to be issued within 30 days. It is important for insured people not to worry because everybody will have access to healthcare services without any problems”.



    Health cards might become mandatory starting with February 1st, according to a draft government resolution, currently under public debate. Family physicians must activate the cards until January 31st so that they may become operational. However, they have announced they will not distribute the health cards that have not reached the insured people for various reasons. The vice-president of the National Family Medicine Society, Sandra Alexiu claims that such an action does not have a medical character and it is below the professional training of family physicians:



    “ The law stipulates that the Romanian Post shall distribute the cards. The distribution of cards is a non-medical activity”.



    According to another provision of the draft resolution, insured people will have to pay for another card and cover the expenses of its distribution, if they ask for another card to be issued because they lost their card or if the card was stolen or torn, or if the holders’ ID data were changed.