The summer of this year was marked by tragedies that once again showed the limits of the Romanian health care system. After one woman gave birth on the sidewalk in front of the Urzichen hospital, and another was actually left to die in a hospital bed in the Botosani maternity hospital, the fire in Krevedia at the end of August put even more pressure on the wound that hurts us for a long time.

A series of events in which citizens could not rely on the state when they needed it most, brought back to the public agenda a topic that has been actively discussed for the past 20 years, intensified only around some tragedies: the underfunding of investments in health care. Just recently, the medical system was in the spotlight after several hospitals that failed to complete their tasks on time lost the opportunity to receive non-refundable European funds for consolidation or reconstruction.

In all this context, it is impossible not to ask ourselves a simple question: why are we not building hospitals in Romania?

The answer, we will see, is far from simple. If we look at the data provided by the National Institute of Statistics (INS), we can see that at the national level, Romania has no less than 368 public hospitals. Of them, 58 are subordinated to the Ministry of Health. The rest belong to local authorities. In this case, by town halls or district councils on a case-by-case basis as a result of the decentralization of health care, a measure taken in 2011.

It is important to note that in Romania we also have private medical facilities – 167, according to INS statistics for 2020. Thus, we reach a total of 535 public and private hospitals. Excess, according to the experts whom “Panorama” turned to in order to understand why we got here and what we can do so that medical action is for the benefit of the citizen, and not against him.

Read more at Panorama.ro.