Radio România Internațional

Tag: Romanian healthcare

  • 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.

  • Social Problems and Union Discontent

    Social Problems and Union Discontent

    Romanian healthcare trade unions picketed a few days ago the Prefect’s offices in several counties as well as the Parliament Palace in Bucharest, to demand that inequities in the public healthcare sector be eradicated and that the system be properly financed. They are dissatisfied with the fact that negotiations on the new salary law have been suspended, and want 6% of the GDP earmarked for public healthcare and new rules for the operation of consulting rooms in schools.



    In the north-eastern Romanian city of Iasi, more than 300 employees from public education, healthcare, local administration and tax agencies, protested in front of the Prefects Office. The leader of the Iasi branch of the “Fratia trade union confederation, Ioan Pascal, pointed out that discontent had built up since 2010, when salaries had been cut down by 25%, and that the latest draft law generated significant imbalance in terms of salaries across the public sector.



    Iulian Cozianu, head of the “Sanitas Iasi trade union, added that, considering the current price level in Romania, salaries should be raised by at least 25%. Healthcare personnel demand holiday and night-shift bonuses and want the hiring freeze in the sector to end. In turn, the Prefect of Iasi County, Marian Grigoras, said he would forward the unionists lists of demands to the relevant structures in the Government.



    Equally disgruntled were scores of miners and energy workers from the Oltenia Energy Complex in south-western Romania, who walked 300 km to Bucharest, in a protest march. Two years ago, massive redundancies were initiated to downsize the companys 15,000-strong workforce, and a further 2,000 people are to be let go this summer. The miners hope to convince the Government that mining in this area is worth carrying on.



    The Energy Minister Victor Grigorescu has said the Oltenia complex is not insolvent and the Cabinet will find solutions for the financial recovery of the company. He had talks with the management and employees and agreed on a plan to improve the efficiency of the company, which requires, among other things, a personnel restructuring scheme.



    Meanwhile, some hope that the situation of the company might improve through a partnership with a major Chinese corporation. Oltenia officials say that a new thermal power plant could be built in Rovinari, in three years time, in a partnership with the Chinese state-owned company Huadian Engineering. The project requires investments of one billion euros. At present, the Oltenia Energy Complex is one of the corporations that generate huge losses for the state budget, although four years ago it was reporting profits. The unit is able to cover nearly 30% of the electricity demand of the country, but the prices it charges are three times higher than those asked by other suppliers in the market.



    (Translated by: Ana Maria Popescu)

  • Strengths and Weaknesses in Romanian Healthcare

    Strengths and Weaknesses in Romanian Healthcare

    The President of Romania Klaus Iohannis has called for solutions for a more efficient and better performing healthcare system. In an address given at the launch of the National Prevention Programme, the head of state pleaded for a healthier lifestyle and equal access to health promotion and education programmes. Johannis said Romania might become a provider of expertise for countries in the Balkans.



    Klaus Iohannis: “Our country may become a provider of expertise in performance areas such as the flu monitoring system, the emergency system or the anti-smoking legislation.”



    Information is vital to ensuring a proper health level, believes Klaus Iohannis, who mentioned that health education primarily addresses children and teenagers, but it should also target the underprivileged categories. In turn, the Healthcare Minister Patriciu Achimas Cadariu announced the start of public debates on the multi-annual integrated health promotion and education plan.



    Patriciu Achimas Cadariu: “The principles underlying this plan are equality and universal access to prevention services, a focus on the specific needs of beneficiaries and respect for all beneficiaries. The plan is aimed at ensuring that in the coming 5 years the proportion of the population embracing a healthy lifestyle increases constantly, particularly among those categories that are incurring increased health risks.”



    The Education Minister announced he would like to introduce a new subject in schools and kindergartens, called “Education for health,” teaching children about the benefits of healthy eating and hygiene and the problems caused by alcohol and smoking.



    Meanwhile, the Romanian Healthcare Ministry signed a cooperation agreement with the World Health Organisation, which will run until the end of next year. The WHO appreciated Romania’s efforts to put together disease prevention programmes, the launch of the hospital-acquired infection monitoring and control plan this month, as well as the recent endorsement of the law that bans smoking in closed public areas. Next month a first public debate will be held, concerning the draft law on vaccination.



    Also this spring, the Healthcare Ministry will develop the programme targeting the early diagnosis of cervical cancer and will draw up two other major prevention plans concerning the early detection of breast cancer and colorectal cancer, as part of a national Cancer Control Plan to be launched in April. As of March 10, inspections will be conducted in all hospitals in Romania, in the wake of the severe digestive infection cases involving babies reported recently.

  • Home Care for the Elderly

    Home Care for the Elderly

    27.5 % of Romanian senior citizens over 65 (around 900,000 people) live in dire poverty, compared to a European average of 7%. Of them, one in five needs home care, but only 0.23% of them have the benefit of such care. These are grim statistics, little known to the general public. But wait, there’s more. NGOs that offer care services say that, even though over 350,000 people in Romania need home care, the healthcare budget, both insurance and ministry issued, has only paid for home care for 29,306 people. As such, NGOs have joined forces to compensate as much as they can for the lack of government funding. Let’s now listen to Doina Crangasu, head of the Caritas Confederation for Romania:



    “Two years ago, Caritas Romania had the initiative of creating an NGO platform providing social and medical services for seniors. In record time we managed to get together 57 NGOs from various counties around the country, which joined this on-line platform. 81% of SeniorNet’s member organizations announced a constant rise in demand for home care. Unfortunately, many requests go unanswered, because social services in Romania have many gaps.”



    Even though at this time there is work being done for a map of senior citizens’ needs, to see exactly what they are and in what areas, the need for intervention is urgent, and a number of needs can be readily identified. Depending on those, NGOs offer the following range of home care services: psychological counseling, social assistance, medical care, household work which the seniors is unable to perform. Many problems come from poverty, but also from loneliness. Some seniors are abandoned by families, others suffer from the ‘kids gone to work abroad’ syndrome, just as many kids have the same syndrome for lack of parents. Doina Crangasu:



    “These are generally elderly people who live alone either because they don’t have a family, because they are widows, are childless, or their children work abroad, or because an illness has caused them to lose independence and they have become incapable of carrying out daily tasks such as personal care or going to the doctor for treatment. At the same time, Romania faces a higher outflow of younger migrants. This means that in the countryside we see a predominance of older people with no family support, or support from the local authorities.”



    At the same time, many retirees have taken fate into their own hands, and created their own assistance structures. One example is the Mutual Assistance House for Retirees ‘Omenia’. With 1,400,000 members nationally and 35,400 members in Bucharest and its surroundings, this institution is underwritten by members and sponsors, as well as through a very low intensity commercial activity whose profits go back to the retirees. In the Rahova-Ferentari area of Bucharest, one of the poorest in the capital, on a tiny street with tiny houses, recalling the slums between the two world wars, we find one of the CARP Omenia areas, a tiny town for seniors with a small shop, a cobbler’s and tailor’s, a barber’s, a chemist’s medical cabinets and a small loan shop. All of them practice symbolic prices, at no profit, according to Gheorghe Chioaru, head of the National Federation of Mutual Assistance Houses for Retirees, who told us how pensioners contribute in order to have access to such services:



    “Each member pays a contribution. When they withdraw from the association, they are paid back their dues. In addition to the dues there is a monthly 3 lei contribution, of which 70% goes to help with burial costs, with the rest going for services. The dues depends on the size of pensions. The entrance fee is 20 lei. After that, members can borrow money from the association’s fund, depending on the size of their dues. They can borrow as much as three times more. Interest rates are between 1 and 14%.”



    The shop, workshops and medical facilities are for all members. But CARP Omenia pays special attention to the bedridden, as Gheorghe Chioaru told us;



    “There are cases in which some pensioners have never seen a doctor in their lives, and we send them a family physician. We have medical caravans going from village to village. In the countryside, old people are forgotten and abandoned. We take bread and food for people stuck in their homes. Another project involves a contract with UnitedAway, involving 100 pensioners who are stuck at home, and we send them food, hygiene products, a nurse, a dentist, and home care providers. The latter are a rarity, because they get training with us, but then leave the country. The state does nothing to encourage us.”



    At this moment, the government is working on a national strategy to protect the elderly, a strategy which needs a lot of improvement, as Doina Crangasu says:



    “Now we are in a process of public debate launched by the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection in early January. At the center of the public debate we have the National Strategy for the Promotion of Active Aging and Protection of the Elderly. We salute this initiative, but we looked at the project, and it has gaps. They promote active aging, and yet there is no mention of the situation facing most of the elderly right now.”



    Until the strategy goes through, NGOs are looking for independent financing, and are looking into European funds earmarked for the 2014-2020 period.