Additional Funds for Healthcare

The Interim government has increased the budget of the Health Ministry

Daniela Budu, 11.11.2021, 14:00

In order to support
the healthcare sector hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, the interim government
in Bucharest has disbursed an additional 66.5 million Euro to the Health
Ministry from its reserve fund. The money will be used to purchase more
anti-COVID-19 vaccine shots and to fund national healthcare programs. Anti-flu,
anti-HPV and hexavalent vaccine shots will also be purchased. As regards the
treatment of COVID patients, interim minister Cseke Attila said Romania has
sufficient stocks of Remdesivir, although more stocks will be bought soon.

70,000 new phials
of Remdesivir will be bought. Right now, we have sufficient stocks to last us
the next few weeks, but we want to ensure a continuous treatment in hospitals
across Romania. We will start public procurement procedures for this type of
drug.

The additional
funds will be used to supplement the number of meal vouchers handed to people
taking the anti-COVID shot, the Minister says. The new funds add to the
previous two budget increases in late September, used to purchase drugs for COVID
patients and to ensure the funding of the intensive care programme. In October,
more money was made available from the government’s reserve fund to purchase
serums for the national vaccination program. The healthcare system is overrun by
the large number of COVID patients and hospitals are overcrowded. Against this
backdrop, a new fire was reported on Thursday morning in Ploiești, southern
Romania, in a ward treating COVID patients. The fire broke out in the
infectious disease ward of the Ploiești County Hospital, at the time treating 20
patients. Two patients died in the fire, and a nurse sustained serious burns. The
incident follows less than a month after the fire at the Constanța Infectious
Disease Hospital, which killed 7 patients. It’s also the fourth such tragedy in
less than a year, after the fires at Piatra Neamț, which killed 10 people, and the
one at Matei Balș Institute in the capital city, when 4 people also died. In
the last year, several other fires were reported in hospitals across the
country, which could have led to tragedies. In April, three patients died when the
oxygen delivery system of the mobile intensive care unit located within the
premise of the Victor Babeș Hospital in Bucharest caught fire. (VP)