The transfer of district hospitals from district councils under the management of the Ministry of Health will improve the quality of medical services and will ensure massive investments in modern equipment, said the director of the National Health Insurance Company (CNAM) Ion Dodon. According to him, the hospital reform will enable to regionalize the most important medical services so that all the citizens have access to high-quality medical assistance, IPN reports.

The CNAM head assured that the hospital reform does not envision the closure of hospitals. On the contrary, the passing of district hospitals under the management of the Ministry of Health will enable to modernize and develop them.

“The insured person has the right to free medical assistance and this assistance should be of a high quality. In 2023, over 7 billion lei was allocated to the hospital system. My opinion is that the country will obtain more benefits if the district hospitals are managed directly by the Ministry of Health. In this case, we will easily obtain the regionalization of particular services, such as services in the obstetric and gynecological areas, in the field of cerebrovascular accidents. We cannot afford to develop particular services in each district hospital. Therefore, they should be regionalized and this can be done by a district council as each district council believes that their hospital is more important,” Ion Dodon stated in the talk show “Reflection Points” on Vocea Basarabiei station.

As a result of consultations with representatives of the district hospitals, a consensus was reached so that the Ministry of Health will take over only the management of medical institutions, while the buildings and their lots will remain the property of local authorities.

“It is a problem related to the financing of these institutions. The local authorities do not have the necessary resources to manage these hospitals and also do not have the necessary skills and specialization. We do not see investments being made in hospitals and better distribution of resources is what we can obtain besides regionalization. What happens if we have one tomograph and two district hospitals? To what hospitals shall we give it? What is definite is that the property of the local public authorities remains intact,” said the CNAM head.

The bill to transfer district hospitals from district councils under the management of the Ministry of Health was given a first reading by Parliament. The PAS MPs, who proposed the bill, said the measure will help improve the quality of services for patients by increasing investments and optimizing hospital management.