Protests against hospital closure

It is a problematic situation for dozens of employees of healthcare establishments who no longer can conclude insurance contracts with insurance houses; it is the common issue of nearly 70 hospitals which are about to be converted into elderly homes and whose employees – relocated.

Staff of the Buftea hospital protested in front of the medical unit on Monday.

An hour after, villagers on the Almăj Valley in Caraş-Severin county announced further protests against the conversion into an elderly home of the medical unit in Bozovici village.

The relocation to other hospitals of 43 of the 70 employees of the Solca Hospital in Suceava is set to begin on Monday.

According to the Radio România correspondent Gina Poenaru, in Botoşani county, where not less then three hospitals were left without funding, the main issue is represented by the fact that both employees of the Federation TESA and auxiliary personnel will be left without a job.

In the relocation process will be considered only 40 nurses, 10 doctors, 14 orderlies and 11 caregivers, which have worked in hospitals in Darabani, Truşeşti and Guranda, which were closed on the first of April.

There are enough jobs "for all medical staff", officials claim

Officials in the Health sector claim that there are enough jobs for all medical staff, even if this measure requires the applicants to commute tens of kilometres to work. All the employees concerned do not embrace this measure.

90 doctors are pointed to be employed in medical care units with beds or to the Botoşani county Ambulance Service.

There are still 354 vacant jobs for nurses and 209 other for orderly.

157 jobs for caretakers are still available and 34 more for ambulance drivers.

The Emergency County Hospital Botoşani is the top of the list concerning vacant jobs, while there are needed 27 doctors, 153 nurses, 113 orderlies and 83 caretakers.

In the Municipal Hospital Dorohoi there are 22 vacant doctor positions, but nurses and orderly are also likely to be hired.

"Patients are being transferred, medical staff is being relocated, there should be not even a nurse left without a job, we’re working on that", prefect of Botoşani county Cristian Roman stated.

Hospital managements fear in their turn that they will not dispose the necessary funds to pay all the staff relocated from closed medical units, while the legislation in force caps health expenditures to 70 percent of the total spending per medical unit.

Translated by: Mihaela Grigoraş
MA Student, MTTLC, Bucharest University