The ATI doctor who denounced the suspicious deaths from “St. Pantelimon” won the process for abusive dismissal
Antoaneta Elena Voicu, the doctor who drew attention to the suspicious dead from the “Sf. Pantelimon” Hospital in the Capital, won the process for abusive leave and will receive damages.
Doctor Antoaneta Elena Voicu won in the first instance. Photo: Facebook
Dr. Antoaneta Elena Voicu, a doctor at the “St. Pantelimon” Emergency Clinical Hospital in Bucharest, won an important first victory in justice, after being fired, after the scandal broke out in April 2024 regarding several suspects registered in the Intensive Care section. The court decided that his dismissal was abusive and ordered his reintegration into office, as well as the payment of all the salary rights he was deprived of during the period after dismissal.
Antoaneta Elena Voicu is the doctor who has attracted the public and institutional attention to possible serious irregularities related to the administration of treatment in the ATI section, after, between April 4-6, 2024, about 20 patients died in a short time.
His notification led to the opening of a criminal investigation by the Prosecutor's Office of the Bucharest Court, but also to checks from the Ministry of Health, the College of Bucharest and the management of the hospital.
Shortly after he reported the irregularities, the doctor was officially fired due to a conflict with the hospital management. In reply, she filed a process for abusive dismissal.
On May 8, 2025, the court issued a decision favorable to the doctor. The judges in part annulled the dismissal decision and ordered its replacement with a written warning. At the same time, they forced the “Sf. Pantelimon” hospital to re-enlarge Elena Voicu on the previous position and to pay all the salary rights, indexed and updated, from the moment of dismissal to reintegration.
“Admits in part the request for a trial. It partly undoies the decision no. 1289/27.06.2024. It replaces the sanction of the individual employment contract with the sanction written. It orders the applicant's reintegration to the position prior to the dismissal. It obliges the defendant to pay to the applicant a compensation with the other, Rights that the applicant would have benefited from the date of dismissal until the date of reintegration ”, It is shown in the court's decision, quoted by Hotnews.
The sentence is not final and can be appealed to the Bucharest Court.
Following this decision, Vasile Barbu, the president of the National Association for Patient Protection, requested that the doctor's compensation be paid from the hospital funds, but to be personally borne by the former manager, Bogdan Socea, who led the unit during the scandal and who subsequently resigned.
“Now, Socea is good to pay, not from the hospital's money must be paid the money for damages established by the court!“Barbu wrote, in a Facebook post.
We remind that, in April 2024, the hospital care director notified the Prosecutor's Office in relation to the fact that, at that time, about 20 patients in the ATI section died under suspicious conditions. The accusations aimed at the intentional decrease in doses of noradrenaline administered to patients – an essential drug for maintaining blood pressure in critical patients. In some cases, the substance would have been even replaced with physiological serum, according to the notification.
Although the criminal investigation is still in progress, the controls carried out by the hospital management, the Ministry of Health and the College of Physicians concluded that no irregularities were identified.
