Romanian doctor drops the bomb: Patients are not safe in public hospitals!
Patients are not safe in Romania’s public hospitals, despite the Ministry of Health’s assurances that the disinfectants used in hospital units are efficient in killing germs, according to Bogdan Tanase, the president of the Doctors’ Alliance, an independent association that represents some 30,000 medical employees in Romania.
Tanase says that the results announced by the Health Ministry on Wednesday, which show that the disinfectants used in public hospitals are effective in over 95% of the cases, do not reflect the reality.
“The tests that have been performed are contamination tests that only focused on the presence of bacteria on surfaces and the medical personnel’s hands. These tests only checked for the efficiency of the disinfectants used, not their concentration. The tests were only for bacteria. They haven’t tested for viruses, spores, and fungi,” Bodgan Tanase said on radio RFI Romania.
“They haven’t tested if the hepatitis C virus was present on surfaces and medical instruments in hospital to see if a patient who has been subject to medical intervention could be infected with the virus,” he added.
“Someone cried bomb in Romania’s medical system and still the plane is flying further,” Tanase said, adding that he didn’t feel safe in local hospitals. “I don’t think the patients are safe as the minister said,” he concluded.
A journalistic investigation started by journalists from the Gazeta Sporturilor sports newspaper led by Catalin Tolontan recently revealed that hundreds of public hospitals in Romania have been buying diluted disinfectants from a local company called Hexi Pharma, for many years.
Tolontan’s team have started to investigate the public healthcare system in Romania after the Colectiv tragedy in October 2015, as many Colectiv victims who survived the fire died in local and foreign hospitals weeks later due to hospital infections.
Just days after the Colectiv club tragedy, the Doctors’ Alliance signaled that Romanian hospitals were not equipped to properly treat burned victims.
editor@romania-insider.com
