Healthcare endeavours in early 19th century Wallachia

The first hospitals were established on the premises of monasteries or nearby, on the Romanian territory. Monasteries were once places were the physical conditions were cured together with the psychological or mental ones. In Bucharest, one such treatment place was the Panteleimon Hospital settlement. Initially it was placed somewhere outside the city, in the commune of Pantelimon. In time, the commune grew into one of Bucharest's eastern districts. Its name and subsequent fame were linked to the Saint Panteleimon Monastery, built in the mid-18th century. The foundation deed of the hospital settlement is dated 1731. However, the construction proper, for the establishment and for the monastery began in 1735. It was not until 1750 that the works for the two edifices were completed. 1735 was a year to remember because of the plague epidemic that broke out that year. The epidemic severely affected the downtrodden segment of the population, as usual treated on the premises of the monasteries. Actually, ruling prince Grigore the 2nd Ghica, the founder of the hospital, ruled that the new institution should cure the contagious diseases as well. Subsequently, another hospital was built. The new establishment was exclusively dedicated to the contagious diseases. The Saint Panteleimon Hospital was dedicated to the more general conditions. In the 19th century, the hospital had been going through a series of changes. One such change was implemented by one of the first physicians schooled in the West, Constantin Caracas. At that time, medical doctors trained in the West got involved in the development of the public healthcare system in Wallachia. But what exactly happened at that time? Mihaela Diana Spranceana pursues a Master's programme with the University of Bucharest's History Faculty.

Mihaela Diana Spranceana:

"In the first half of the 19th century, actually in 1832, ruling prince Grigore Ghica the 4th had the old hospital taken down, ruling that new rooms be built, for a number of 37 patients. In the following years, the number of patients was continually growing. Between 1867 and 1869 the hospital was rebuilt from scratch and opened with a spare-bed capacity of 80 beds. Admitted to that hospital were both male and female patients suffering from chronic diseases that were internal, but also external, sexually transmitted diseases as well as ophthalmological conditions. Yearly, around 350 patients were treated, while the number of deaths per year ranged from 12 to 15, according to the hospital register and the physician Constantin Caracas's accounts. Who were the hospital's medical doctors, throughout the years? On the staff of Saint Panteleimon Hospital were physicians who were famous around the country, and among them we would like to mention the names of Dimitrie Caracaș, but also that of his son, Constantin Caracaș. As regards the activity of medical doctor Constantin Caracaș, what I can say is that he hailed from a family of Greek medical doctors. His father as well as his brother were medical doctors, and after completing his studies in Vienna he settled in Bucharest where he acquired a certain fame also because he implemented and generalized the smallpox vaccine".

Since it belonged to a monastery, the Saint Panteleimon Hospital mainly treated the downtrodden. Yet contagious diseases took their toll on the entire population, so it was also in the first half of the 19th century that the first vaccination campaigns also began in Bucharest. And, just as we have found out, medical doctor Caracas was on the frontline. One of the old medical documents that has been preserved to this day is the vaccination Regulation of 1875.
Mihaela Diana Sprânceana:
"Article 1 stipulated that vaccination was mandatory for the entire population, while article 2 stipulated that any given child was to be vaccinated during the first year of his life, save for the diseased or the sickly, for whom vaccination was optional. Revaccination was made at the age of 7, and during the smallpox epidemic vaccination became mandatory. Article 7 clearly stipulated that the persons who failed to produce a document proving they had been successfully vaccinated were denied access to all public services. It is exactly what happens today with those green passes without which you do not get access to malls or certain institutions unless you produce them. During the vaccination operation proper and for the control of the operation, physicians will be accompanied by a local police agent in urban areas, while in the rural communes they are accompanied by the mayor or one of his delegates, just as it happens today in the vaccination centres, where the police and the gendarmerie are present. The booster rollout, in the urban areas will be administered by the town's physicians, personally, while for the rural communes it will be administered by the county's board-certified physician or one of his delegates, twice a year, on previously-set dates."
As for the Saint Panteleimon Foundation, in 1869 it was rebuilt from scratch, this time with a spare-bed capacity of 80 beds. During the inter-war years, the number of sections grew, including a surgery section, an internal medicine as well as a nervous disease service. In the final years of the communist regime, and mostly after the 1977 tremor, the hospital and the church were in an advanced state of degradation Towards the late 1980s, the hospital and the monastery alike were demolished to make room for a hotel-and-restaurant compound, the so-called Swan Compound, Complex Lebada in Romanian.