Ministry of Health continues to reorganise hospitals

The Ministry of Health maintains its position on the reorganization of the hospital system, but will reassess the situation of the hospitals that were proposed for merging, based on the suggestions from the local authorities, Health Minister Attila Cseke said in order to clarify this issue, which has caused many disturbances in the system.

More protests took place lately because of the intention of transforming hospitals into units for other hospitals or transforming them into retirement homes.

What is certain is that the list is not cast in stone, but the process will continue, as well as the discussions on this issue with the authorities. The project which was released for public debate on the reorganization of hospitals creates new confusion and discontent.

The president of the Association of Towns, Banciu Dumitru, said the Ministry of Health acknowledges the local autonomy by stopping the dissolution of hospitals that are subordinated to municipalities or county councils.

Present at the talks, the Secretary of State at the Ministry, Cristian Irimie, refutes this claim.

‘I do not know who said that hospitals will not be dismantled. What I discussed with the representatives of the Association of Towns, I said that cities will not be revoked by the Health Ministry, because we cannot. The law says that hospitals are set up and disbanded by public authorities and it runs with permission from the Ministry’, Cristian Irimie said.
Minister of Health Attila Cseke confirmed that the reorganization will continue and he explained that the proposals in the project come from an analysis carried out in recent months.

‘There are proposals from the analysis of the Health Ministry. I remain firmly convinced that such an organization is necessary but we will surely do a review, we received proposals, suggestions from local authorities, county authorities, we will make a review of them’, Cseke Attila said.

The situation of the hospitals will be reviewed case by case
In the case of the Cernavoda city hospital, for example, it was removed from the list of hospitals proposed for transformation into retirement homes, due to its specificity confirmed by state officials.

The situation of the hospitals will be reviewed case by case in the following months, based on performance indicators proposed by the Ministry of Health.

‘It is to assess whether hospitals are or are not able to provide quality care to patients and are institutions that only host patients but instead consume health insurance funds’, Cristian Irimie said.

Transforming hospitals in retirement homes is just a proposal of the Ministry and it will comply with the decision of the local authorities, but there is a risk that they will not fit into the criteria for funding of the National House of Health starting 1 April.

If before the reorganization, most hospital managers complained of small funds and lack of personnel and equipment, now many say that hospitals which are to be transformed do no longer have debts and are equipped according to standards and the lack of medicines is no longer a problem.

On the other hand the president of the Association of Towns in Romania rejects the idea that local hospitals should bear alone the cost of running the hospitals.

‘If we are expected to handle these issues, we have another possibility which is to modify the law of distribution of sums to local authorities, a share of the money collected locally that should remain with us, not go to Bucharest and be divided according to formulas or with x influences’, Dumitru Banciu said.

Next week, the representatives of cities in Romania will meet the management of National Health Insurance House to discuss proposals for contracts to fund hospitals.

Translated by: Iris Butnariu
MTTLC, Bucharest University