CT scanner worth 1.7 million lei, unused for a year
Articol de Mihai Bădescu, 07 Februarie 2025, 19:48
For more than a year, a CT scanner worth 1.7 million lei has been sitting unused in the town of Baia de Arama, in Mehedinti County, because those responsible in the field have failed to obtain the necessary authorizations to put it into operation. All the while, locals are traveling dozens of kilometers to Targu Jiu, Motru, Drobeta-Turnu-Severin or Craiova for a CT investigation. RRA correspondent Mihai Badescu reports:
Reporter: In a hospital located in a mountainous area, the equipment is awaited by locals but also by doctors, especially for medical emergencies.
-: They appoint you in Motru, in Targu Jiu, in Severin, a long distance that I too travelled. They don't bring any doctors of any other profession than that.
-It is very necessary because people would stop traveling.
Relu Iovan, radiologist: I work in another hospital as well and I have patients from this area, there are many of them and from here they run 50 kilometers to Targu Jiu, 70-80 km to Severin, 30 km to Motru, but human life hangs by a thread when it is a vascular accident, a hemorrhagic accident, a trauma - especially since in the area there have been many accidents at work.
It took a year for the authorities to get authorization to install the equipment, but the hospital still needs other approvals.
Constantin Podaru, public administrator: At the moment the hospital needs to obtain the authorization to operate, unfortunately for us it should have been obtained, but the lack of a budget that could allow us to afford the expenses related to obtaining this authorization has affected the process. Discussions have been made, as soon as there is budget it will certainly be obtained.
Relu Iovan, MD: At the moment we are working on the files for the operating authorization.
Why do you think it is taking so long:
Relu Iovan: I can't know, the bureaucracy in Romania takes time.
Another complicated issue is the high energy consumption needed to run the machine. It can reach 120.000 lei annually, a lot for the hospital's small budget.
Translated by: Radu Matei
