Ciolos Cabinet Faces New Crisis
Romanian Health Minister Patriciu Achimas-Cadariu resigns following disinfectants scandal.
Roxana Vasile, 09.05.2016, 12:41
In the last five years the Romanian Intelligence Service submitted some 100 notifications regarding irregularities in the Romanian public healthcare system, including the issue of in-hospital infections. Health Minister Patriciu Achimas Cadariu is the first to fall victim in the huge public scandal related to the use of diluted disinfectants in hospitals. A journalists investigation had previously revealed that disinfectants had a concentration up to ten times lower than what is admitted as standard.
Six months after taking office, Achimas-Cadariu chose to resign as Health Minister, unhappy with how the Government chose to manage the crisis. On Saturday, Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos called on the Health Ministry to resume its investigation, and to double-check the concentration and effectiveness of all the products used for disinfection in every hospital in the country.
Non-compliant samples had already been identified in 50 hospitals, and have now been resubmitted for testing. The Prosecutor Generals Office has launched a separate investigation, searching the headquarters of HexiPharma, the company distributing the disinfectants. Prime Minister Ciolos wants to change the legislation and take measures that should expose the many serious issues facing the health care system.
Dacian Ciolos: “I want to use the next 6 months to also take other structural measures which, even though they cannot thoroughly reform the healthcare system, will at least reveal the problems of the system. And I want to assure everybody that I will not hide anything from anybody, I will not lose sight of anything. I intend to set up a team of professionals who know the system well, some from within the system and others outside it, so as to have a better and clearer understanding of what can be done in 6 months. And Im determined to do that.
On the one hand, on short term, the authorities need to make Romanians regain confidence in the healthcare system. On the other hand, they need to take measures to upgrade the obsolete hospital infrastructure by building new hospitals with the help of European funds. Management irregularities should also be addressed, which requires the reconsidering of the way management contracts in public hospitals are observed as well as the regulations subordinating hospital units to central and local authorities.
According to the PM Dacian Cioloş, in the last 7 years Romania has had at least 10 successive health ministers and none of them was able to reform the system so as to prevent such large-scale scandals.
