New investments in Romanian hospitals
Healthcare Minister Sorina Pintea announces investments in emergency units and local hospitals
Leyla Cheamil, 19.04.2019, 13:23
Massive investments will be made this year in Romanian hospitals, so as to enable physicians to provide high-quality care to patients, the Healthcare Minister Sorina Pintea announced. She explained that the investments consist in construction, extension and revamping, and equipment procurement, and will target both the hospitals run by the Ministry, and the ones managed by local authorities. This means that the money will be channelled not only into emergency hospitals, but also in the smaller, town and city hospitals, which must be able to provide support to the big healthcare units.
The Ministrys investment budget this year is around 210 million euros, as against a rough 200 million euros earmarked last year. The Healthcare Minister also added that, under an agreement with the World Bank, Romania benefits from a total amount of 79 million euros, over half of which already earmarked in 2018, with another 63 million euro worth of investments scheduled for this year.
Sorina Pintea: “In 2019, 2 emergency care units will be built, one in Oradea, worth 2.8 million euros, and another one in Brasov, worth 2.2 million euros. Also this year, we will have the radiotherapy bunker ready at the Cluj Oncology Institute, following a 1.1-million euro investment. Partnerships with local authorities will also help finance the design and construction works for further developing the radiotherapy network in Targu Mures, Timisoara, Iasi, and Bucharest, in a total investment of 8 million euros.
The Healthcare Minister also added that modern radiation therapy equipment worth 20 million euros will be purchased for several oncology institutes in the country. Four centres using high-quality equipment for the treatment of severe burns are also scheduled to become operational as of 2020. Sorina Pintea went on to say that 2 of them will be located in Bucharest, and one each in Timisoara and Targu Mures. Feasibility contracts have also been signed for these projects.
On the other hand, Pintea spoke about the authorities lack of involvement in setting up units for major burns treatment since the Colectiv tragedy in Bucharest. On October 30, 2015, during a rock concert, a fire caused by a fireworks show led to the death of 64 people and left nearly 200 others injured.
Sorina Pintea: “Of course the authorities should have been more involved, since the Colectiv incident. All I can tell you at this point is that, according to the architects, we do have state-of-the-art centres, with high-quality equipment, but we dont have the staff to work there.
According to Sorina Pintea, under the same agreement with the World Bank, a team of Romanian physicians and nurses are in France these days, for training in major burns treatment.
(translated by: Ana-Maria Popescu)
