The Minister of Health, Alexandru Rafila, presented PSD’s priorities for the health system, emphasizing the multi-year budget and the completion of major investments, including regional hospitals and major burn centers.
Alexandru Rafila, Minister of Health. Photo: GOV
The Minister of Health, Alexandru Rafila, emphasized that the new measures are based on the lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic and are aimed both at increasing access to medical services and improving infrastructure and financing in the health sector.
“It’s a permanent discussion and it’s clear that the health system needs new money and we need something else to be able to continue these projects and complete them: we need a multi-year budget. Whether we are discussing investments or health programs, we need a multi-year financing of health because you cannot make health policies in the absence of at least a medium-term thinking regarding these financings. We want to be able to complete the major investment projects in this 2025-2028 interval, and there are very serious prerequisites for achieving this”said Rafila.
The program includes the completion of the three regional hospitals in Cluj, Craiova and Iași by 2028, an investment valued at over 2 billion euros. The lands are prepared, and the technical projects have already been completed, the minister said. In addition, three centers dedicated to patients with severe burns, located in Timișoara, Târgu Mureș and Bucharest, will benefit from financing through a loan from the World Bank. Rafila estimates that the first center will be operational in 2024, and all will be operational by 2026 at the latest, which will double the treatment capacity of major burns in Romania.
The program also includes the opening of 200 community centers, especially in disadvantaged areas, which will offer general consultations, including telemedicine and dental services. At the same time, the plan provides for the renovation and equipment of 2,600 primary medicine offices, along with the modernization of 69 specialized outpatient clinics, projects valued at 950 million lei.
PSD wants to eliminate discontinuities in the supply of medicines, especially in rural areas, by developing mobile pharmacy units. Other initiatives include speeding up clinical trials for drugs and creating mechanisms to support the domestic pharmaceutical industry.
The program also encourages health education in schools and the implementation of screening programs for certain conditions. The number of palliative care beds will also increase to 4,000, thus supporting the growing needs of this sector.
Another important point of the program is the reform of medical management, which Rafila said will represent the “real change” in the functioning of the health system. The objective is to bring more efficiency and responsibility in the administration of public medical facilities.
