By developing joint health care projects, Moldova and Romania can become more competitive in obtaining European funds. During an IPN debate on Tuesday, Constantin Poiană, manager of the Buhuși Hospital in Romania declared that a health care establishment that gets involved in attracting European funds is one that has a future. In the absence of these funds, own income or ministry allocations would be insufficient to make ambitious projects possible, said Constantin Poiană.

The Buhuși Hospital has obtained high-performance medical equipment thanks European funds, including a state-of-the-art stroke recovery system that has an artificial intelligence component that benefits patients from both Romania and Moldova. “It is an enormous satisfaction to see that patients who effectively could not move their fingers, even their hands for years, get their first positive results after using this equipment”, Constantin Poiană said.

The hospital manager added that there is also a large 30 million euros project underway to build a ward for infectious diseases with modern infrastructure, bathrooms for every patient room, and a better operating theater. “It is a project that our hospital cares a lot about”.

Asked about the European Union’s health care programs, the vice-president of the Romanian Association of Public Hospitals Olimpia-Maria Oprea said that the first project implemented was cross-border cooperation in the treatment of female infertility, submitted within the Romania-Hungary program. The second was within the Romania- Serbia program, in which Serbia received pre-accession funds. It was a project thanks to which both Romania and the Serbian city of Vršac rehabilitated and equipped their obstetrics-gynecology wards. Similarily, a 2.5 million euros internal project was implemented to buy more equipment and rehabilitate laboratories.

Another project won in 2020 and which is now in the process of joint implementation with Serbia is a strategic project of 5 million euros. There are four partners – two hospitals each from Serbia and Romania. Olimpia-Maria Oprea explained that this project addresses cancer screening, early diagnosis and treatment. The Romanian side is to purchase a mobile breast cancer screening unit, equipped with a digital mammographer, with the Serbian counterparts to buy a mammographer as well, added Olimpia-Maria Oprea.

The debate was the 14th edition of the “Double integration through cooperation and information" project. Continuity”, financed by the Department for Relations with the Republic of Moldova. The content of this debate does not represent the official position of the Department for Relations with the Republic of Moldova.