An incredible security breach calls into question the safety of patients in Romania: a man broke into a hospital unhindered, stole a vital component of the oxygen tank and disappeared without a trace, leaving the Intensive Care Unit one step away from tragedy. “It seems that there is a big problem in the medical units in Romania with the security services. And patients and medical staff are also at risk. Anything could happen!”draws the attention of Radu Gănescu, president of the Coalition of Patient Organizations with Chronic Diseases (COPAC). And a series of events that have taken place in just the last few years prove him right.
What happened at St. Pantelimon Hospital
On Thursday evening, April 16, the hospital’s oxygen system broke down and the supply stopped twice: once for 10 minutes, the second time for 20. During these intervals, the medical staff manually ventilated the patients in the Intensive Care Unit, and the ISU sent an ambulance with oxygen reserves.
Later, it was learned that he ended up in this hallucinatory situation after a man stole pieces of the installation located in the yard of the medical facility.
“It was established that a person would have entered the hospital yard by climbing the fence, later he would have destroyed a component of the installation and stolen a pipe of approximately one meter, as well as a tap related to the tank”, reported the Capital Police.
The representatives of the medical unit preferred not to give many details.
Later, the alleged perpetrator of the theft – a 65-year-old man – was caught and the pipe was found at a collection center in Sector 2.
,,A person entering a medical facility, stealing and leaving with the tube from the oxygen tank is a world first!“, says Radu Gănescu, president of COPAC.
Shallowly guarded hospitals
However, there have been other situations that are hard to imagine.
In September 2024, also at the Saint Pantelimon Hospital, several men armed with clubs, pitchforks and axes entered the guard room of the medical unit. The management of the hospital was then fined 3,000 lei, because it did not have adequate security. And the security company Falcon Security received a penalty of 5,000 lei. Next, the same company – with a single shareholder – provides the services of this type for the medical unit.
And at the Floreasca Hospital, in 2023, Tudor Duma – known as Maru – filmed himself while looking for medicine in the sanitary unit, at 04:00 in the morning. The young man, who also had a knife with him, walked for several minutes in the corridors of the hospital, destroyed the pharmacy and signed graffiti on the walls, without being “bothered” by anyone. He managed to leave the medical unit with several bottles of physiological serum with him.
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“Guys, I’m already broke. I’m also drunk. I sneaked into the Floreasca Hospital (…) What medicines do I steal from here? It’s empty, no one knows I’m here. I’m here like at home. I steal everything I want“, said Tudor Duma defiantly in the video he posted on Facebook and Tik Tok.
The safety of patients and medical personnel is at stake
Generally, from what I’ve seen, the guards are at the entrance to the medical facility or at the entrance to the medical facility courtyard. I think there should be – but depending on the way the purchases are made on these services – monitoring of these institutions, at a monitoring center. And, of course, security services done professionally. Or security services in medical facilities, as seen in everyday life, seem to be services made only to spend some money, not to provide safety to medical staff and patients
says Radu Gănescu, the patient representative.
An investigation carried out by Europa Liberă in 2024 showed that only 10 of the hospitals in Bucharest had in view the contracts concluded with the security companies. The representatives of the Administration of Hospitals in Bucharest (ASSMB), which have 19 hospitals in the capital under their control, declared then that each medical unit organizes its own selection procedure for security companies. At the same time, the data showed that only four hospitals bought security services through direct procurement from SEAP and only another six have transparent bidding/selection procedures. The others organized internal selection procedures, without going through SEAP. The contracts were not published on the institutions’ websites either.
The president of COPAC believes that the authorities are the ones who should come up with unitary measures, in the absence of individual responsibility of hospital management.
There should be a strategy to impose some very clear rules on medical facilities regarding the protection of patients and medical staff. To regulate some responsibilities and impose some clear, strict rules. Otherwise I see that it is not possible. (…) A misfortune could happen, for sure! It seems that there is a big problem in medical units in Romania with security, with security services. And patients and medical staff are also at risk. Anything could happen!
We tried to get in touch with the representatives of the Saint Pantelimon Hospital for a point of view regarding the situation of the oxygen tank, but by the time of publication of the article they did not offer a statement.
