Patients will be able to donate hospitals, instead of paying attention to doctors. The law was promulgated
Patients waiting on the hospital hall, photo: Inquam Photos / George Călin
Doctors are responsible to tell patients who want to support a hospital as a form of gratitude for the medical act they have benefited that this can only be done through a legal donation to the health unit, says USR Emanuel Ungureanu, one of the initiators of the law adopted by the Parliament and promulgated by the interim president Ilie Bolojan.
According to the Presidential Administration, the law that stipulates that patients can make donations to the health units in which they were cared for, instead of paying attention to the medical staff, was promulgated by Ilie Bolojan.
The normative act promulgated on Tuesday amends an article in the law of the patient's rights and was adopted by the Chamber of Deputies on March 26.
The law aims to eliminate the possibility for patients to provide additional payments and attention to the employees of the hospitals in which they were cared for, but to provide for their option to provide donations to health units.
- “The patient can make donations to the sanitary unit where he was cared for, in compliance with the legal provisions in the matter,” the normative act provides.
“The bribe is not legalized”
The normative act was initiated by several USR deputies, who show, in the exposition of reasons, that “providing a gift to the doctor represents a constant in the behavior of the Romanian patient, caught in the middle in the fight between the right to gratitude and the criminal implications of such a gesture”.
The initiators say that, over the years, this practice “has received various interpretations from the different population segments, and the legislative framework, although it has undergone some changes, does not provide a clearly clear response.”
“Beyond the mentioned aspects, we do not want the complete cancellation of the right of gratitude of the patient. It can be truthful in certain situations, which is why we argue that it is manifested only by the donations transmitted to the medical unit in which the patient was taken care of, not to doctors or other employees of the sanitary centers,” the reasons are exposed.
USR deputy Emanuel Ungureanu, one of the initiators, said, after the vote in Parliament, that this project “does not legalize the bribe”.
“Patients should be taught by doctors that a word of thanks and prayer are sufficient. Doctors are responsible to tell patients who want to support a hospital as a form of gratitude for the quality medical act that they have benefited that this can only be done through a legal donation to the health unit. (…) What did I approve of the sword, as we saw some false titles in the media, but legalized the form by which any person who wants to support a hospital as a form of gratitude for the good that can be done legally.
The draft law had been rejected by the Senate, but the Chamber of Deputies was a decision.
