Doctors from the Odobescu Maternity Hospital in Timișoara, members of the Pro Maternity Association, started a commendable fundraising campaign for the construction of a new maternity hospital in the town on the Bega.
The doctor Olimpia Oprea is fighting for the creation of a new maternity PHOTO maternitatenoua.ro
The Odobescu Maternity Hospital of the Timișoara Municipal Hospital has been closed since December 2024, after the roof collapsed, and since then pregnant mothers have to go and give birth at the Bega Maternity Hospital at the Timișoara County Hospital, whose employees manage with great difficulty to cope with the number even and triple cases, births and medical problems
Dozens of people participated on January 16 this year in a rally organized in Timișoara, after the Odobescu Maternity Hospital of the Municipal Hospital was closed more than a month ago, following the collapse of a building ceiling. The protest was attended by doctors, nurses and mothers, who were joined by other supporters of their claims.
In this context, the creation of a new maternity hospital in Timișoara is extremely important. And although since 2016 several doctors, led by doctor Olimpia Oprea, have taken steps and concrete steps to build a new maternity hospital, the laudable initiative ran into multiple blockages at the local and national level.
In this context, the doctors of the Odobescu Maternity Hospital, members of the Pro Maternity Association, have recently started a campaign to raise funds for the construction of a new sanitary facility where children can be born.
“Adevărul” spoke about this laudable initiative with Olimpia Oprea, one of the most well-known and appreciated obstetrics-gynecology doctors in Timișoara and also the president of the Pro Maternitatea Association. Olimpia Doru has been fighting for almost 9 years for a new maternity hospital to be built in Timișoara.
An extremely involved doctor, with almost 35 years of experience, Olimpia Oprea managed in recent years, together with her team, to attract European funding of tens of millions of euros for important equipment at the Odobescu Maternity Hospital and the Timișoara Municipal Hospital.
The project has a construction permit as early as 2021
The steps for a new building for the Odobescu Maternity Hospital in Timișoara began as early as 2016. During the period 2016-2020, Olimpia Oprea was the manager of the Municipal Hospital in Timișoara. Doctor Olimpia Oprea started the steps immediately after taking over the position of manager. Unfortunately, at the Ministry of Health, he was met with refusals from former ministers Vlad Voiculescu and Florian Bodog, both of whom told him that there were no funds for the construction of a new maternity hospital in Timișoara.
For several years, the municipality has also allocated a plot of land of over 8,000 square meters for the construction of a new maternity ward of the Timișoara Municipal Hospital, the project of the new building also has a construction permit as early as 2021, but it did not receive funding through the PNRR, although it was on a site eligible when the documentation was submitted.
“In February 2021, I wrote to Minister Voiculescu, the opportunity to access funds through PNRR had already appeared, I asked him to help us convince Mayor Dominic Fritz to submit a project through PNRR for maternity. He later replied that he convinced the mayor of Timisoara to submit the project. I later met with Mayor Dominic Fritz and submitted the project. And in 2022, the maternity project was in 12th place out of 45 projects proposed for financing through the PNRR. Out of the 45 projects, they decided to finance only 25. And although we were in 12th place, they removed us from the list to introduce the Oncological Institute from Timișoara, they considered it to be of greater importance”said doctor Olimpia Oprea for “Adevărul”.
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project New Maternity Building Odobescu New Maternity jpeg
And the future maternity project remained on a waiting list, although Dr. Olimpia Oprea and her colleagues took multiple steps.
“If the existing project were financed, the building of the future maternity hospital could be completed in two or three years. I asked the vice-mayor Ruben Lațcau if all the political forces unite and decide on the financing of that project, if they agree with the already existing project, which already has a construction permit. And he told me that I agree to complete the project. And then we thought of trying to mobilize through the Pro Maternity Association to raise funds for future maternity. The association currently has 19 members, 16 of whom are doctors”adds the doctor Olimpia Oprea.
Details on how Romanians can get involved and donate for a new maternity can be found on the maternitatenoua.ro website. A site created on his own initiative and free of charge by the father of a girl born prematurely and whom the doctors at the Odobescu Maternity Hospital managed to save. Another special gesture.
Donations can be made to:
RO05RNCB0717049291940001
Account holder: Pro Maternitate Foundation
For more details, you can call 0734 961 947. And there are already dozens of people who have donated money for the project of the future maternity hospital in Timișoara.
How much would a new maternity cost?
The project of the future maternity hospital in Timișoara envisages an ultra-modern building with five floors, with underground parking, with all circuits, including 10 elevators, laundry, kitchen, administrative building, eight operating rooms, 10 salons with one bed each and private bathroom, 24 rooms with 2 beds and private bathroom, 18 rooms with 3 beds and private bathroom, rooms for resident doctors, rooms for intensive care and many more other facilities. The future maternity hospital would have six delivery rooms.
The costs for the future maternity hospital in Timișoara amount to approximately 148 million euros.
“There is the necessary equipment, we have European projects through which we can complete with what is needed for construction. We hope that both the local administration and the Ministry of Health will help us to complete this important project”says the doctor Olimpia Oprea.
