The Ministry of Health’s Sanitary Inspection decided to shut down the Intensive Care Unit (ATI) of the Burn Hospital in Bucharest after two people died at the hospital in suspicious conditions.

The measure is to be applied right after the last two patients admitted in the ATI section will be transferred, reports local Mediafax. Meanwhile, the hospital can’t receive any other cases that would require the use of the Intensive Care Unit.

Moreover, during the control organized on Thursday, the inspectors also issued fines worth RON 6,000 (some EUR 1,300).

On Thursday, local investigation blog Tolo.ro published shocking images filmed inside the hospital’s ATI section, which showed white larvae on a patient’s neck. The patient from the video died, but, according to hospital spokesman and doctor Adrian Stanculea, the larvae weren’t the cause of death. The incident came soon after a woman died at the Burn Hospital in June, just days after she got a wrong blood transfusion. Again, Adrian Stanculea said that the transfusion wasn’t why the woman died.

Following these two incidents, the authorities decided to shut down the hospital’s Transfusion Center and ATI section. However, Health Minister Vlad Voiculescu said on Thursday that closing down the hospital is the primary option now, with all severe burn victims to be re-routed abroad in the future.

The prosecutors and the police are currently investigating the two cases. The Bucharest Police questioned Adrian Stanculea, who is the head of the Burn Hospital’s ATI section, on Friday. The head nurse of the ATI section was also heard on the same day.

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com