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European Commissioner Cretu: Healthcare system, still critical in Romania
European Commissioner for Regional Policy Corina Cretu told a news conference in Bistrita that the healthcare system is still one of Romania's critical sectors that might urgently need some of the European funds available to the country in 2014-2020.
"Unfortunately, the healthcare system is still one of Romania's critical sectors. The European Commission's 2016 country report on Romania confirms that there is a deficiency in the healthcare system of Romania and there are also discrepancies in the system's development among various regions of the country. We are in a permanent conversation, conducting permanent cooperation with Romania and we have recently talked with Mr Deputy Prime Minister Dincu so that we may start off all the projects, including in the healthcare area. Structural and investment funds will continue as an important source to finance the development and modernisation of the healthcare system," Cretu said.
Cretu also mentioned the intention of the European Commission to support over the next four years the start of 280 healthcare projects in Romania on European funds as well as to create regional hospitals and upgrade emergency care units.
"In our joint plans approved by the European Commission and the Romanian Government, we intend, to support, in 2016-2020, 280 healthcare projects for local communities, 35 emergency units at county hospitals — including one in Bistrita — and three regional hospitals. But the existence of these funds is not sufficient; you know perfectly well that we are expecting the national and local administrations to secure all the conditions for the conduct of the investment projects before the projects start," said Cretu.
She added that 75 percent of public investment projects in Romania are carried out on European funds, and that is why "development is not possible without speeding up the implementation of projects on European funds."
Corina Cretu on Friday visited Bistrita-Nasaud County accompanied by Deputy Prime Minister Vasile Dincu, touring the Bistrita Polyclinics and the Bistrita Emergency County Hospital, both recipients of European and governmental funds for modernisation and expansion.
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President Klaus Iohannis says partial solutions are inefficient to the major problems facing Romania's healthcare system, calling on the Health Ministry to come up with an exact analysis and a clear plan of urgent measures.
"Repeated crises in the healthcare system proves once again the inefficiency of partial solutions to the major problems, calling for a firm intervention from those responsible for the system. I am expecting the Health Ministry to come up with an exact analysis and a clear plan of urgent measures for the situation in the healthcare system following the publication of a list of the hospitals where problems have been detected with disinfectants," Iohannis says in a statement published on his Facebook page.
The Health Ministry on Friday disclosed a list of 50 Romanian hospitals where non-compliant samples of disinfectants were found upon testing, following the approval of the General Prosecution Office to do so.
Nine hospitals were detected in Bucharest City as well as hospitals in 22 counties which disinfectants tested non-compliant.
The ministry says in a press statement that in order to secure patient safety at the hospitals in question, administrative measures were taken to avoid any risks to the patients, including banning the use of the faulty disinfectants.
The ministry says its inspections will continue and the hospitals' contracts with disgraced drugs company Hexi Pharma will be audited.
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Judicial police officers, acting under the coordination of prosecutors, conducted on Saturday searches at the offices and work points located in Bucharest and Ilfov of disinfectant producer Hexi Pharma; evidence and documents were also collected from 25 health care facilities in 21 counties and Bucharest, the Prosecution Office attached to the High Court of Cassation and Justice (PICCJ) informed in a release.
PICCJ investigates a case of forestalling disease combat and the falsification and substitution of food or other products. Specifically targeted is disinfectant producer Hexi Pharma, which is suspected of having supplied hospitals with sub-standard disinfectant.
As many as 152 police officers from the Directorate of Economic Crime Investigation, forensic experts of the National Institute of Criminology, economic crime investigation police, public order police and forensic experts of the General Directorate of the Bucharest Municipal Police and of the Alba, Arges, Bacau, Brasov, Braila, Caras-Severin, Calarasi, Cluj, Constanta, Dolj, Galati, Gorj, Iasi, Mures, Olt, Prahova, Satu Mare, Suceava, Timis, Tulcea and Valcea county police inspectorates participated in the action.
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ActiveWatch media and human rights watchdog is asking Parliament's joint committee on the oversight of the Romanian Intelligence Service (SRI) to inquire into SRI's relation with Hexi Pharma company.
In a letter to the parliamentary committee, ActiveWatch is demanding the following checks: whether or not SRI has opened in the past five years any investigation in the activities of Hexi Pharma and the related company group; whether or not SRI has informed any of the relevant authorities on its findings; whether or not there is any economic connection between SRI's activity and the Hexi Pharma companies or any of the companies working in connection with Hexi Pharma.
According to the letter, the request is made "based on data provided to the public by investigative journalists regarding the business of a group of companies - among which the most frequently mentioned is Hexi Pharma - suspected of several criminal offenses, which seems to have seriously endangered the health of the population in 40 counties in Romania for several years."
Moreover, ActiveWatch also mentions that part of the misdeeds notified were the object of investigations conducted by the National Anti-Corruption Directorate, prosecutors' offices and the Directorate for Organised Crime and Terrorism Investigation, but "the investigations were concluded with no consequence."
The letter also shows that the requests sent to the parliamentary committee also take into account "the inefficiency of any legality control of the activity of this group of companies."