80 kilometers round trip and at least two hours lost. That is, if you go by car. It is the road traversed in the last months by dozens of parents from Carei, forced to take their children to the hospital in Satu Mare. The reason? The Pediatric Department of the medical unit in Carei was closed due to a lack of doctors. A decision that outraged people and made them protest, along with the children, in the street. All this time, assurances come from both the mayor’s office and the hospital management that everything will return to normal.
The residents of Carei were left without pediatricians. Archive
The story begins in September of last year when four pediatricians and nine neonatologists from Carei Municipal Hospital submitted their resignations. Only one doctor remained in the hospital, but he has no way to cope with the large number of patients. “There are parents who stayed for four, five hours in a row under conditions where up to 100 patients came to the emergency room every day. We all have children and it is very difficult for us to go from Carei to Satu Mare if our children are sick or we have an emergency”, people complain. “It’s very difficult. If something happens in the evening or at night, I don’t know what to do. My brother-in-law has a car and we will probably go to Satu Mare that way. Or by taxi. Or by ambulance. We have nothing to do”one woman said.
The mayor of the locality: “We will bring doctors from Satu Mare and Bihor”
The town’s mayor, Monica Giurgiu-Kovacs, said the hospital manager did everything he could to convince the doctors to stay. Unfortunately, without success. “Management then tried to find solutions. We are already in advanced negotiations with specialist doctors and we hope to reopen the Pediatrics and Neonatology departments by the end of January,” explained the mayor. “We are fully aware of the extremely unpleasant situation and the dissatisfaction created by the temporary suspension of the guard line in the specialty Pediatricsrespectively the suspension of the activity of the Maternity department, at the level of the Carei Municipal Hospital”, continued the mayor.
He announces that the hospital is in an advanced phase of negotiations with specialist doctors from Satu Mare and Bihor counties. “The positions of pediatrician and neonatologist became vacant due to the resignation of the respective medical staff at the end of December 2024 and the beginning of January 2025. As for the negotiations, they will be completed during this week, the immediate result being the resumption of activity at normal parameters until at the end of January”. December 31, 2024 was the last day of operation of the Pediatrics department at Carei Municipal Hospital.
The management of the Carei hospital claims that doctors prefer private offices where they have less responsibilities, fewer working hours and higher salaries. But the situation is not unique. On the contrary. We are talking about a national phenomenon because, in general, doctors do not flock to hospitals in small towns or to offices in villages. “There are people who don’t like commuting. To move from the city where they live to the city where they work. Then, they are not satisfied with either the wages or the working conditions. Moreover, the local authorities do nothing or do very little to attract these people to permanently move to the prospective area”, explained for “Adevărul” the family doctor Mihai Mara who, although he lives in Cluj Napoca, has his office in a commune in the county.
Protests in Timisoara as well. The city was left with only one maternity hospital.
Today seems to be the day of protests, because a tense situation can also be found at the Odobescu Maternity Hospital, in Timișoara, where dozens of doctors, nurses, nurses and mothers have taken to the streets.
The medical facility was closed at the end of December after a ceiling in the building collapsed. It is about pieces of plaster that fell in the vicinity of a delivery room and in an area in the vicinity of the sanitary groups. Following these events, the local authorities made a series of experiments, and the conclusion was as clear as possible: in these conditions, the maternity hospital can no longer function. That is why since December until now a new building has been sought where the hospital unit will be relocated. But the situation seems that, for now, it has no solution. That’s why doctors, nurses, nurses and mothers went out to protest in the streets. People gathered in front of the maternity hospital, and then they gathered in front of the town hall in Timișoara demanding a solution to the problem. At the moment, only one state maternity hospital operates in the city.
