The Minister of Health, Alexandru Rogobete, announced that from September 1, the patients will be able to report online in which they were redirected, abusively, from state hospitals to private offices. The measure, presented as a step towards transparency and fairness, is harshly criticized by the National Association for Patient Protection (ANPP), which draws attention to the system does not have the necessary infrastructure.
Patients will be able to notice problems in hospitals on the website of the Ministry of Istoc
Minister Alexandru Rogobete talks about a paradigm change and the respect that the state must show to patients. But behind the measure, say the specialists, there is no necessary infrastructure.
Vasile Barbu, president of the National Association for Patient Protection (ANPP), in an exclusive interview for Adevărul, points out that the notifications risk remaining “buried” or used only to outline a good image of the state institutions.
Rogobete promises the change: “The health of the Romanians is not negotiated”
In a Facebook post, on August 17, the Minister of Health, Alexandru Rogobete, firmly transmitted that Romanian patients should not be paid for services that they have guaranteed through the public system.
“Unfortunately, I received numerous signals that the patients are told that there are no places, the ceiling is over, CT/MRI is broken, the laboratory does not work or that there are no conditions – and they are sent to private offices, where they pay for services that they should have received for free. This practice is unacceptable and undecided“Rogobete stressed.
To combat this phenomenon, the minister announced that from September 1, 2025, an online form will be available on the website of the Ministry of Health.
Thus, patients will be able to report the situations of abuse, specifying the hospital, the doctor involved, the indicated private office and the costs imposed.
“These notifications will be analyzed by a common control of the Ministry of Health and CNAS, so that each case is verified and sanctioned. (…) Patients deserve correct treatment, dignity and care-not humility and financial pressures. The health of the Romanians are not negotiated.”said the minister.
Patients: “It is a matter of PR”
The president of the National Association for Patient Protection, Vasile Barbu, believes that the measure is an image action rather than a real solution for patients.
“It’s O question of pR a ministrul. He knows very well that many notices come, as they come to us. The problem is who solves them? If 3-4 notifications per day come to us, we already take a lot of time to solve, because the solution means to resort to some specialists. The person who receives the notification only knows the management of notifications and distribution on specialists and fields. There are notifications that concern various fields. Who’s doing this?“said Barbu, for the truth.
Moreover, he presented, in a concrete way, how complicated is the settlement of the notifications, in the case of the entitlement he leads:
“In us, a number of four notifications occupy a whole day. We call for many specialists, some solutions are given to us after ten days. In the meantime, other notifications appear. It is a complex mechanism. A person from the public relations cannot do so, because he does not have medical expertise or health management,” he explained.
The ANPP president warns that the Ministry of Health has neither personnel nor dedicated compartment for such a volume of notifications:
“At the Ministry of Health I do not see which of the directions we can transform. It would mean to be a compartment of COSU size (emergency compartment within the Ministry of Health). Many are related to the Health Insurance House. At CNAS there is no such compartment in the organization scheme.
At the same time, the requests should be cheated in fields, as it may be issues related to medical issues or administrative issues.
“Witch hunt” and “buried” notifications
The ANPP leader warns that, in the absence of a clear infrastructure and a minister’s order in which they are foreseen, the notifications risk being treated superficially.
“Someone has to solve them. If the minister wants to hunt witchcraft, he can take over a referral here and make his image.Barbu said.
He contained to draw attention to other issues:
“At CNAS it is not possible, because there are local problems, of the county houses in relation to the contractual suppliers. In addition, there are situations of uninsured patients. There are many aspects that the minister should first solve. This decision must be made with the achievement of an infrastructure. The settlement of the notifications must have their own device. ”
Vasile Barbu also claims that until now the patients have sent notifications to the ministry, but they were, for the most part, “buried”:
“Many complaints arrive at the ministry, but they are left there or rarely sent to various institutions“says the specialist.
Basically, the problems do not find their problems either, but the patients are sent back, as explained by the ANPP president. The ministry directs the notifications to the National Insurance House, which in turn sends them to the County House. Then, “C.So county cannot solve, because it does not have its own device“concludes the president of ANPP.
He also reminded that a similar system was tried in the case of lack of medicines, which no one is currently appealing.
Chronic lisps of the system
The ANPP leader believes that such a reporting system will not solve the real needs of patients. True problems start from chronic shortcomings in the medical system:
“We also have problems because of indiscipline, but most are generated by shortcomings. Medical units, suppliers, doctors, have nothing to solve,” said Vasile Barbu.
He has detailed that these shortcomings include the absence of essential drugs for patients with rare diseases or cancer and the impossibility of performing medical genetics, on the grounds of lack of money.
“The problems are so serious in the system: we have no money for medicines for patients with rare diseases, for cancer patients, we have no money for certain medical genetics,” Barbu warns.
