The Cabinet approved the merger of “Toma Ciorbă” Infectious Diseases Clinical Hospital with the Dermatology and Communicable Diseases Hospital by absorption. Minister of Health Ala Nemerenco said that this reform is extremely necessary, but the personnel of the two hospitals were used by certain political players and were even pressed by the institutions’ administration to organize protests against the reorganization, IPN reports.
“I will not focus here on a negative note to present all the data and figures that confirm the inefficient management of these two institutions. I would like to emphasize the positive side because the investments and the restructuring needed there are essential, given the pandemic experience we have gone through. The country cannot further maintain a republican-level infectious disease hospital that does not have an intensive care unit. During the pandemic, absolutely all patients had to be transferred to other hospitals,” Ala Nemerenco said in the Cabinet’s meeting.
According to her, it is impossible for a national infectious diseases hospital to work without a pediatric department, because there are quite dangerous infectious diseases, and without a modern laboratory and other things. “The risk and danger of similar pandemic situations remain fairly imminent globally. This way, we need to build a health system that is ready to respond to new challenges,” stated the minister.
Ala Nemerenco reiterated that the staff will be fully incorporated into the new structure of the created institution and that employees do not face any danger. According to her, this is the only opportunity to properly manage the newly founded institution and to ensure the patients’ access to high-quality services.
The minister noted that false information was circulated in the public space about interest in the lot and buildings of “Toma Ciorbă” Infectious Diseases Clinical Hospital. “I would like to underscore that this hospital is actually part of the heritage. It is a cultural facility with a medical history as the buildings have architectural and historical connotations. We are willing to work together to preserve these buildings, to repair them properly, not as it has been done so far, without the permission of the Ministry of Culture, with the installation of white plastic windows that are fully untypical of these buildings,” said the minister.
Since the merger bill was published, the personnel of the two hospitals have issued several public statements and mounted a protest march against the merger. Employees of the medical institutions requested the authorities to renounce the merger and to involve their institutions in projects and grants that would help these to develop. There were also allegations that there was interest in the lot on which “Toma Ciorbă” Hospital is located behind this initiative.
