Another tragedy hits Romanian hospitals
The Romanian medical system and Romanians are in mourning over a new tragedy.
Roxana Vasile, 04.10.2021, 14:00
In the early hours of Friday, Romania was shaken by some
terrible news: a fire broke out at the intensive care unit of the Infectious
Diseases Hospital in Constanţa, the biggest city on the Romanian Black Sea
coast. The initial death toll among the ten Covid patients who were being
treated there was 9, but this was later revised down to 7. Which doesn’t make
this incident any less tragic.
After a fire last November at the Piatra Neamț
hospital, when ten patients died and the doctor on duty who tried to save them
suffered 2nd and 3rd degree burns on 80% of his body, the
government launched an inquiry that revealed malfunctions with the signalling
and electric installations. The inquiry, which also looked at most of the
national healthcare system, identified 2,000 deviations from fire security
regulations. It found that over a quarter of Romanian hospitals lacked fire
fighting water tanks, two thirds of ICUs did not comply with the minimum
required distance between beds and that half of ICUs had a staff shortage for
on duty service.
Just a few months after Piatra Neamț, another fire
broke out at the flagship Matei Balș Institute in Bucharest, killing over 20
people. We can already talk about a phenomenon of hospital fires. According to
a report published in the media, fires broke out at 10 hospitals in the last
year, amid growing pressure on very old infrastructure and a growing number of
Covid patients needing hospital treatment.
After the latest disaster on Friday, experts were sent
in at the site to establish the causes of the fire. At the same time, the Constanţa
Prefecture launched an administrative inquiry into how the fire protection and
security measures were respected. The intensive care unit, which was completely
destroyed by the fire, was taken over by the County Emergency Hospital,
including the staff.
Neighbouring Hungary offered to help take over some of
the patients from Romania, if needed. However, the Romanian medical system as a
whole is in need of a major overhaul. Prime minister Florin Cîțu spoke about
the need to address all the mistakes made in the last 30 years, and president
Klaus Iohannis said the Romanian state failed in its fundamental mission to
protect its citizens. (CM)
