The president of the Bucharest branch of SANITAS, Viorel Husanu, announced that the medical workers will go on strike next month, complaining, on the one hand, that their salaries remain among the lowest in Romania, and on the other hand, the acute shortage of hospital staff. “These days, since the beginning of this year, we are exhausted with work, and other budget employees have not even returned from vacations. Guardhouses are full, wards are full, and we have no staff,” says the head of SANITAS.

“We will organize a protest in February, not in January, until January 18 we need to collect enough signatures to not recognize this strike as illegal. Now we are engaged in its organization, and on February 1 or at the beginning of February, this strike will definitely take place. For about two years or more, we have been paying attention to the fact that what is happening in the health care system is not normal, salaries remain among the lowest in Romania. A paramedic’s salary is close to the minimum wage in the economy, averaging 3,000 to 4,000 lei, and this blocking of positions has led to attrition. These days since the beginning of this year, we are exhausted with work, and other state employees have not even returned from vacations. The security rooms are full, the departments are full and we have no staff,” the union leader said Saturday night in a telephone conversation with Digi 24, according to News.ro.

He also complained about the lack of staff in the system, revealing that the system needs more than 30,000 new workers.

He noted that last year the leaders of the two ruling parties promised to implement half of this requirement, but 15,000 positions were not put up for competition.

When asked who is to blame for the situation in the health care system, Hushanu answered: “We had assurances from the Romanian government that salaries would increase and positions would be unlocked. Now, when Mr. Rafila accuses Mr. Bolosh and vice versa, this is not our problem, our problem is that health is dying, the health care system is collapsing, we cannot be spectators of something like this.”

Health Minister Alexandru Rafila said on Saturday regarding the strike announced by SANITAS that in the meetings they had with the unions, both with the Ministry of Health and with the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Marian Neacsu, the possibility of a salary increase for TESA staff in the first quarter of this year was also discussed.

He clarified that these tensions that exist, some of them are justified because what really needs to increase is the income for the TESA staff who keep the hospitals running.

“It will happen, as the Prime Minister promised. I am convinced that then this strike will no longer have a purpose,” he emphasized in an intervention on Digi 24.

Rafila noted that the two priority areas, health care and education, represent for the Government and for everyone in fact areas in which we should be able to function as close to normal as possible. The Minister of Health reported that at the end of last year, an order was approved, according to which “from January 1, 2024, all positions that are vacated in the health care system can be put up for competition without a report note.”

“So what’s being released from now on through retirement, through attrition, can be taken care of without a memorandum just so we can take some of the pressure off and be able to replace staff at a pace that meets the needs of the health care system,” Rafila said. (photo source Dreamstime)