Cancer patients who came from all over the country on Thursday to protest against the non-implementation from July 1 of the National Cancer Control and Control Plan, approved by Parliament and made public eight months ago, did not achieve anything concrete after the meeting. with Alexander Rogobete, State Secretary of the Ministry of Health. With cancer patients at the door of the Ministry of Health, Aleksandru Rafila decided not to look at them in the eye and to participate in the national conference “Models of good practice in hospital administration” in Bistrica on Thursday. The role of local authorities”.

Cancer patients received only promises after an unprecedented protest on Thursday

In the absence of Alexandra Rafila, the patients were received by State Secretary Alexandra Rogobete, who invited them to cooperate with the Ministry of Health in the development of the Government Resolution on approving the rules of application of the National Cancer Control Plan. Alexandru Rogobete told cancer patients at a meeting on Thursday that the application rules could be ready in September, although a working group has been set up at the Ministry of Health since last December to work on the development of the rules. , so that the oncology plan will take effect from July 1.

Oncologists, even after yesterday’s protest, the Ministry of Health did not provide any explanation for the delay in the implementation of the law, only that it wants to bring it to the “executable” stage.

Cesar Irimia, president of the Federation of Cancer Patient Associations, which initiated Thursday’s protest, says the Ministry of Health wants to “transfer” the funding of the Cancer Plan to the Ministry of Finance: “Of course, I wonder why we are still the Ministry of Health? »

Under such conditions, the Federation of Associations of Cancer Patients will extend the protest schedule and file a lawsuit against the Ministry of Health for non-compliance with the law – non-compliance with the law adopted by the parliament and promulgated by the head of state. – says Cesar Irimia, president of the largest association of cancer patients in Romania, for HotNews.ro.

“People died during this time. Some of them could be saved if the law was enforced. In Romania, 153 cancer patients die every day. Some of them can be saved,” says Caesar Irimiya.

Anka, suffering from breast cancer, came from Bacău to protest in front of the Ministry of Health

Dozens of cancer patients from all over the country at the doors of the Ministry of Health

Several dozen cancer patients from all over the country – Iasi, Bacau, Satu Mare, Bihor, Bistrytsia or Cluj – came on Thursday morning in front of the Ministry of Health to protest against the non-implementation of the National Cancer Plan. , unanimously adopted by the parliament and promulgated 8 months ago by President Klaus Iohannis.

The institution under the leadership of Alexandru Rafila has not yet approved the rules of submission, and the Minister of Health has even talked about restoring the cancer treatment plan, which will lead to the loss of time and lives for some patients.

How Aleksandra Rafila spent the day when cancer patients protested in front of the ministry: at a seminar in Bystrica

Minister of Health Alexandrou Rafila is participating in the national conference “Models of good practice in hospital administration” in Bystrica municipality on Thursday and Friday. The role of local authorities”, organized by the Ministry in partnership with Bistryca-Neseud County Council, Bistryca County Emergency Clinical Hospital (SCJU), George Emil Palade University of Medicine, Pharmacy, Science and Technology of Tirgu Mures and with the support of the WHO Bureau in Romania and the Romanian Microbiological Society, reports Agerpres.

The conference is intended for CEOs, medical directors and hospital directors, and topics covered include healthcare-associated infection control and prevention, healthcare recruitment and retention, patient-caregiver communication, nutrition for hospitalized patients, best practices for the care of elderly patients and financing of public hospitals.

Inaugurating the work, the Minister of Health said that the way the hospital in Bystrica is managed and the investments made in health care by the Bystrica-Neseud County Council in recent years are an example of best practice, assessing that local authorities must learn to take responsibility for health the communities they represent.

“The aim of this workshop is to identify solutions in several key areas in which we need to make changes so that medical care becomes an element of trust for the population of Romania. You should know that the popularity of Mr. President of Moldova here, in the district, I believe, is largely related to the efficiency of the health care system, and this is very good, because it shows, in fact, not only the participation of the local authorities, but also a vision, a medium-term project at least for the health of the community in this district. And this is the most important thing, to learn to be responsible for the health of our communities. I think that’s what we’re missing, and I hope that we can have some boiling points and try to expand these models of good practice throughout the country,” said Alexandrou Rafila.

Alexander Rafila, Minister of Health

Cancer Plan released 8 months ago. In April, Rafila announced that he wanted to develop another cancer plan instead of implementing regulations

The National Cancer Plan was launched on 19 January 2022 in a ceremony at the Cotrocen Palace, and on 3 November 2022, President Klaus Iohannis unveiled the law that passed it into parliament.

In December last year, after the promulgation of the law on the approval of the plan, a working group was created at the level of the Ministry of Health to develop the rules for submission to the National Cancer Control Plan. The rules were supposed to be ready by July 1, 2023, when the Cancer Action Plan was supposed to come into force.

However, at the end of April, just two months before that moment, Alexandru Rafila announced that the Ministry of Health was working on a new form of the Cancer Plan approved by the Parliament and published last year, citing that the Plan “has small dysfunctions”.

On May 31, Alexandru Rafila announced the launch of a new anti-cancer plan, given that the National Cancer Control Plan, launched in Kotrochen and approved by the parliament at the end of last year, was supposed to come into effect on July 1.

Cancer patients then said they would take to the streets and sue the Ministry of Health “for failing to follow the law” after Rafila announced the launch of the new plan, instead of drawing up rules to implement the one already announced by the end of 2022 year

Patricio Ahimas Cadariou, an oncologist and PSD MP, one of the people who made the biggest contribution to the development of the National Cancer Plan, also had a strong reaction all this time. In 2016, during his brief mandate as health minister in the technocratic government, work began on the first version of the National Cancer Plan.

Cesar Irimia, president of the Federation of Associations of Cancer Patients

“Sentence of suffering and death for patients!” Patricio Ahimas Cadariou said about the postponement of the anti-cancer plan in an interview with HotNews.ro at the end of April.

On June 14, in the government press, PSD MP Ahimas Kadariu publicly announced that he would not vote for the government of which Alexandru Rafila is a member, due to the postponement of the Cancer Plan, but the doctor from Cluj would change his mind a day later.

On June 6, in a message sent on the occasion of National Cancer Survivors Day, President Klaus Iohannis called for unity and solidarity in the fight against cancer to “make a real difference in the lives of people affected by this disease.” a devastating disease.” and emphasized that “the fight against this disease cannot be postponed!”.

On Friday, June 30, the day before July 1, when the Law on the National Cancer Control Plan was supposed to come into force, Rafila appeared at a press conference where he presented the rules for the implementation of the plan, which, he said, “will take effect from July 1”.

However, the rules for the implementation of the National Cancer Prevention and Control Plan, presented on June 30 by Health Minister Alexandru Rafila at a press conference, are a “big deception” because they are “a document in Word format without any legal value.” Cesar Irimia, president of the Federation of Associations of Cancer Patients, the largest association representing the interests of cancer patients in Romania, told HotNews.ro.

Patients accuse Rafila of trying to “mislead the public” and say they will sue the Ministry of Health if the rules for implementing the National Cancer Plan are not approved by a government decision, as required by law.

The president of the Federation of Associations of Cancer Patients, Cesar Irimia, says that “I do not want Mr. Rafila to mislead the public and, first of all, patients – what a great man he is and what he has done and taught.”

“Think what a mockery he made of the patients. He has no compassion,” accuses the president of the Federation of Associations of Cancer Patients.

Read also:

• “We are tired of dying these days.” Unprecedented protest: Cancer patients took to the streets because Rafila did not implement the Cancer Plan even 8 months after its publication

• Stories of cancer patients who came from the other side of the country to protest at the Ministry of Health: “We are too young to die because others are not doing their job”