​Last week, medical staff at the capital’s Gomoiu and Victor Babeş hospitals consulted with “the police at the door” after patients, especially parents with young children, lost patience with acute staff shortages and long hours. Oana Sivace, director of the Administration of Hospitals and Medical Services in Bucharest, said at a press conference on Monday. The director of the ASMB and some managers of subordinate hospitals call for the urgent unblocking of job competitions blocked by the Government in May of last year.

There are also problems in hospitals subordinate to the Ministry of Health: patients wait even 48 hours to get to an ATI bed

“Patients and relatives become very disobedient because they wait a long time in the intensive care unit. Child patients are more difficult to care for, parents lose patience, they overload patients and staff,” said Maria Enescu, manager of the Victor Homoiu Children’s Hospital in Bucharest. “Recently, we have been calling the police almost every day. The waiting time is 4-5-6 hours,” said manager Maria Enescu.

“We ask ourselves if someone will die in front of the hospital at some point because there is no one to treat them,” said Dr. Radu Cincu, an ATI doctor at the hospital, during the Emergency Floreasca press conference from Bucharest.

Dr. Radu Sincu says that even in hospitals under the Ministry of Health – like Floreasca Hospital – there are problems, and there are cases of patients “waiting 24-48 hours to be able to enter the intensive care unit”.

In this context, the director of the ASSMB, Oana Sivach, calls for a “national unified public health policy plan” and asks the Ministry of Health to “recognize the state of emergency created in the health care system by the lack of personnel.”

The training cycle for a doctor lasts 10 years, but the government does not have a strategy for employment after training

Oana Sivach also says that the problem of the shortage is particularly relevant for doctors, and although the training cycle for a doctor lasts 10 years – 6 years of college and 4 years of residency – “there is no strategy by the decision makers to cover the shortage of doctors”. For example, says Oana Sivach, of the students who entered medical school nationally in 2014, 4,500 entered residency.

On average, says Oana Sivach, only 12% of residency graduates find work in hospitals after completing residency.

In the short term, the solution is to unblock job competitions, but in the long term, a national strategy and a rethinking of distribution at the level of the whole country is needed, says the director of the Bucharest Hospital Administration, given the fact that the provision of medical care is also necessary for the community, given that 50% of the population lives in rural areas: “I don’t think that only unlocking posts is the solution, but also rethinking the distribution at the level of the entire country,” says the director of the ASMB.

“On behalf of the patients, as well as the hospital staff, we demand a medium and long-term national health policy plan, a single one, to urgently solve the most serious problems. We ask the Ministry of Health to recognize the state of emergency regarding the shortage of staff in the system and develop a filling methodology medical positions for a fixed period of one year, similar to the procedures during the pandemic. We also request changes to the procedures for approval of medical needs based on , and not other ministries,” Oana Sivace, director of the Administration of Hospitals and Medical Services in Bucharest, said on Monday.

“The financial crisis in the healthcare industry has actually resulted in staff losses and patient losses. We met today with a constructive desire to signal that the health policy freeze could lead to borderline situations,” says ASSMB. director.

Oana Sivach also says that “medical staff motivation is also important to ensure patient satisfaction.”

In addition, the ASSMB director wishes that “this year we will no longer be blocked by GEOs that prevent us from making investments in hospitals and that payments will no longer be blocked.”

Photo: Dreamstime.com.