“Signal given to society”. How the court motivates that former Minister of Health Nelu Tataru, accused of taking bribes, remains forbidden in the hospital he worked on

The former Minister of Health in Pandemic remains with the employment contract suspended at the Hospital in Huși, where he is a surgeon, to a final decision of the court in the file in which the DNA accuses him of receiving food and money from patients, the amounts ranging from 100 to 500 lei. The court motivates that such a decision does not violate the presumption of innocence, as the doctor accused, but a signal is given to the society that the hospital does not encourage corruption.

On May 27, the Iași Court rejected Nelu Tataru's appeal against the decision of the “Dimitrie Castroian” Hospital to suspend the employment contract.

The former Minister of Health was sent to court in December 2024, being accused of taking bribes from patients. According to DNA prosecutors, he received small amounts of money from 26 of the patients he was treating at the Hospital in Huși. In total, 5,100 lei. The former Minister of Health was investigated under judicial control and had the prohibition to profess in hospitals in the state public system, but after sending the prosecutors in December, the prosecutors revoked the measure, reasoning that there is no indication that they would influence the investigation.

After the decision to refer to court, the management of the Hospital in Huși decided to suspend the employment contract of Nelu Tataru throughout the criminal trial. The manager of the hospital, with which Dr. Tataru was in conflict, invoked the provisions of the Labor Code that give the employer to suspend the employment contract when the facts for which an employee is judged are related to the service. As the decision is not a mandatory one, being at the latitude of the employer, Nelu Tătaru challenged it in court. He invoked that such a decision violates his presumption of innocence.

“The measure of suspension of the employment contract is subjective, disproportionate and unfounded, the manager of the Hospital in Huși, Mr. Popa Bogdan Vasile taking this measure for subjective reasons (revenge),” said in court Nelu Tătaru, who is a surgeon at the Hospital in Huși for 25 years.

“It is precisely his reputation forces him to correct conduct”

The file in which Nelu Tataru challenged the suspension from the activity was judged at the Iași Court, after the hospital management requested the relocation on the grounds that the former Minister of Health enjoys popularity locally and the court could be influenced by the support wave by patients.

At the file arrived on the table of the judges of Iasi, Tataru filed statements of patients who complain about his lack of the hospital. However, the Iași Court appreciated that it does not represent a basis to allow the former Minister of Health to return to the Public Hospital and rejected his request, on the grounds that “the measure ordered by the employer is neither excessive nor disproportionate”.

“The court does not deny the merits of Dr. Nelu Tătaru. From the messages submitted to the file it results in the appreciation of this surgeon in the community, but precisely his reputation obliges him to a correct conduct, as he swore to the profession,” the judges motivated.

In the opinion of the court, by the decision to suspend from the activity, the management of the Hospital in Huși has fulfilled its attribution to “watch over the good progress of the institution”, by capitalizing on the legal framework that “defends the public interest”.

“The hospital cannot be associated with such facts, it cannot create in the consciousness of the citizens that such facts are normal, accepted and encouraged. By suspending the individual employment contract until the doctor's guilt or innocence, the respondent hospital shows that it does not encourage such a practice and has a firm signal to the corruption, Doctors, and in the medical act ”, the judges said.

The decision of the Iasi Court can be challenged within 10 days. The file in which Nelu Tataru is tried for bribery is in the role of the Vaslui Tribunal, in a preliminary chamber, having a deadline on June 18.

Bogdan Popa, the manager who signed the suspension from the activity of Dr. Nelu Tătaru, resigned in March, against the background of the allegations from the Local Council on the defective management of the medical unit budget. The Hospital in Huși is currently facing an unprecedented financial crisis, the Local Council announcing that it makes efforts to escape the medical unit of bankruptcy.