Romania's health minister rules out hospital closures and seeks 10.5-11 billion lei

Hospitals stay open, outpatient care grows

Health minister Alexandru Rogobete ruled out closing hospitals in Romania in an interview broadcast by TVR 1 on Monday, 26 October. His ministry's policy, he said, rests on expanding specialist outpatient clinics and day-case hospital care, a course he pursued in the previous mandate and will continue. He cited gastroscopies, colonoscopies and bronchoscopies as examples of procedures that now often let patients go home the next day. He added that roughly 80% of patients who come to hospital for chronic conditions need treatment adjustments, monitoring, simple tests or a consultation, so keeping them in for two or three days is not sustainable.

He put his position on closures plainly:

“Under no circumstances will hospitals be closed. I want to say that from the start, firmly and emphatically.”

A budget gap of 10.5 to 11 billion lei

Rogobete said the whole health sector needs between 10.5 and 11 billion lei to operate until the end of the year, to be covered through a budget rectification. He described the money as split between roughly 9 billion lei for the National Health Insurance House and the rest for ministry programmes and critical care such as emergency units, anaesthesia, intensive care and neonatal wards. Half of the sum, he said, goes to programmes, medicines, pharmacy payments and other services, while the remainder covers sick leave. The rectification was scheduled for the end of the week of 2 November, though discussions were still under way. He criticised cuts to health spending and argued that billions for projects such as stadiums in Oradea and Brasov could wait instead.

Low estimate10.5

High estimate11

Low estimate

10.5 billion lei

High estimate

11 billion lei

Data from the article text

Doctors who leave public shifts

Rogobete said doctors may work privately after finishing their public hospital shift, but not during the hours they are required to be at the state facility. He wants hospital managers to be able to terminate the contract of a doctor after three violations of this kind, and said he is preparing the legal framework for it. Public pressure discourages the practice, he said, but it must be regulated and sanctioned.

“I am still keeping an eye on those who leave the public system at 10 o'clock for their own private practice.”

He also said the recent protest by medical staff stemmed from the risk of income cuts of up to 4,000 lei, not from doubled salaries. Talks with health unions on a new pay law are set to resume in the week of 2 November.

Medicine supply measures

On Monday Rogobete met representatives of medicine producers and distributors, including the ARPIM and APMGR associations, to prevent interruptions in supply. The first measures agreed are weekly reporting to the ministry on consumption and stocks of medicines used in national health programmes, identifying critical gaps in hospital supply, especially for oncology, cardiovascular and rare diseases, and raising national stocks of critical medicines so they can be moved between hospitals quickly. In a Facebook post he said the financing gap had shown how vulnerable the system can become.

“Patients need medicines, not explanations.”

The ministry had announced on 7 October that an internal public audit of the medicines agency ANMDMR was complete. It found numerous deficiencies and concluded that the electronic reporting system is not yet automated enough.