The “Health Solidarity” Federation from Romania calls for “an urgent reform of the health system”, appreciating that the situation at the “Saint Pantelimon” Hospital in Bucharest “tends to highlight the risk of systemic errors and the inadequacy of the malpractice model”.
The unions demand a reform of the health system. Photo source: archive
“We demand an urgent reform of the health system! The case from the Hospital “St. Pantelimon” Bucharest tends to highlight the risk of the existence of systemic errors, of an ethical nature, and the inadequacy of the malpractice model. Regardless of the final decision of the court regarding the two accused doctors, it is obvious that restoring the trust of the population in the public health system requires rethinking the public health system”. the representatives of the “Health Solidarity” Federation sent.
The main demands of trade unionists
The trade unionists request the Ministry of Health and the Government to urgently start restructuring actions of the public health system, centered on several directions of action. First, replacing the malpractice system with compensating patients for damages. The trade unionists also demand the introduction of the professional body of medical experts, as an autonomous body, which carries out its activity in relation to the courts and the institutions responsible for compensating patients for injuries. The trade unionists state that these requests have been made consistently for over a decade.
The union “Solidaritatea Sanităra” demands the introduction of the profession of ethicist/bioethicist in public hospitals. “Given the numerous public debates on the topic of possible failures in respect of medical ethics and professional deontology, there is an obvious need for objective expertise in the field. These professionals must be recruited from professional categories other than doctors (such as law, philosophy, anthropology, etc. graduates specializing in ethics/bioethics). Ethicists must have the responsibilities of coordinating the work of the Ethical Council, participating in commissions related to procedures applicable in special conditions, providing the necessary advice to health professionals in all ethical issues, respectively supervising the observance of these principles in the treatment and care of patients”. the trade unionists said.
The trade unionists believe that there is a need to create ethical procedures applicable in the case of the shortage of vital resources relative to the number of patients who need them (rational procedure for the allocation of scarce vital resources).
They also demand the introduction of institutions adapted to current realities, such as the bodily will. The request, previously presented in the form of health instructions, is intended to allow citizens who can decide about their health when they cannot, and to facilitate the possibility for medical personnel to identify the persons empowered to decide.
“We believe that, in the absence of the rapid introduction of these systems aimed at increasing the guarantees granted to the population, restoring citizens’ trust in the public health system will become an impossible task, which will have negative consequences for both patients and health workers”. the trade unionists also sent.
Two doctors from the ATI Department of the Saint Pantelimon Hospital are accused of qualified murder with premeditation, after the death of a 54-year-old patient whose dose of noradrenaline was reduced. The medical decision sparked a real debate among doctors of different specializations and raised discussions about the need for a body of experts to pronounce in such cases.
