Romania approves 6,850 healthcare posts after child's death, PSD calls it 'memorandum of despair'

Emergency government meeting

On Tuesday evening, the Romanian government convened an extraordinary hybrid session at 20:00 to approve a memorandum unlocking recruitment for 6,850.75 vacant positions in public healthcare units. The move followed weeks of mounting pressure from hospitals, a general strike by SANITAS union members that left over 500 hospitals providing only essential services, and the death of a child at the Marie Curie Hospital in Bucharest attributed to severe understaffing. The interim Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan had previously maintained that there were no funds for new hires, but the cabinet reversed course after the opposition PSD passed an amendment in Parliament on Monday that effectively bypassed the government's freeze. The memo also included posts for the defence, interior, justice, and transport ministries’ own health networks.

Distribution of unfrozen posts

Of the 6,850.75 positions, 6,452 are allocated to hospitals funded by the National Health Insurance Fund, and 398.75 to county ambulance services. The biggest share goes to nurses (2,593 posts) and auxiliary medical staff such as orderlies and stretcher-bearers (2,567), followed by doctors (1,433.75) and pharmacists, biologists, biochemists and physicists (257). The memorandum allows hospitals and ambulance services to immediately launch recruitment competitions without waiting for further ministry approval.

Political firestorm

The opposition Social Democrats (PSD) launched a sharp attack, calling the decision a “memorandum of despair”. In a press release issued on Tuesday evening, PSD argued that in less than 48 hours the Bolojan government had contradicted itself three times on the same issue. For months, the official line was that there was no money and that the health system “consumes too many resources anyway”. That changed only after the PSD tabled an amendment in Parliament and PNL lawmakers chose to abstain, allowing it to pass.

Ilie Bolojan finally understood that Parliament was solving the problem without them and that they would go down in history as the government that said 'no' to hospitals.

PSD also reminded that the cost of the hiring freeze had been paid in lives, referencing the child who died at Marie Curie. They accused the executive of calling the emergency meeting merely to salvage its image after the parliamentary vote rendered the memorandum legally obsolete.

Romanians don't need meetings at 8 p.m. They need doctors at 3 a.m. when they arrive in the emergency room.

Ongoing health workers’ strike

The extraordinary meeting took place against the backdrop of a general strike by SANITAS, the largest healthcare union, triggered by a new salary law that reduces bonuses and freezes wages. Over 500 hospitals were operating only minimal essential services on Tuesday, and union representatives said the strike would likely continue on Wednesday after talks with the Health Ministry failed to produce a satisfactory outcome.

Biodiversity strategy withdrawn

Separately, the cabinet session also addressed a note on the National Biodiversity Strategy 2026-2030, adopted on 23 July. Interim PM Bolojan announced before the meeting that the government would withdraw the relevant decision, after the PSD filed a prior complaint. The provisions would now be incorporated into a draft law submitted to the Senate earlier on Tuesday.