Radical changes in the report of nosocomial infections. Minister of Health: “Patients deserve safe hospitals. We no longer hide the problems”
The Minister of Health, Alexandru Rogobete, announced, in a Facebook post, that an electronic register for reporting nosocomial infections will be implemented, in which the authorities regarding the infections that are registered in patients in critical situations will be notified.
“For patients in critical situations – especially those with serious burns – we will put into operation the electronic register of reporting nosocomial infections. This register, already made through European funds at the” Grigore Alexandrescu “Children's Hospital, will be extended to all the units that treat such patients. Patients in Romania deserve safe hospitals, correct treatments and total transparency. We no longer hide the problems – we solve them for people! It is a firm commitment! ”, Wrote Alexandru Rogobete.
“A debirocratized, simple and efficient manner”
He announces that, in the next few days, a minister's order will be adopted by which “simple and unitary” protocols will be set up that concerns the following aspects:
- the rules of supervision and control of infections in public and private hospitals;
- Methodology for reporting nosocomial infections;
- clear duties for accidents for exposure to biological products of medical staff;
- Specific methodologies for monitoring these situations and staff and patient protection.
All these measures aim to eliminate situations in which nosocomial infections are not reported and, consequently, the problems in the hospitals generated by them remain unresolved.
“Infections associated with medical assistance (known as nosocomial infections) should not be hidden, but reported and controlled. Only so can we protect patients and limit their spread between people already in a vulnerable situation. In Romania, for years, these infections have been treated as a taboo subject. Rogobete.
He believes that the problem cannot be solved only by blaming the doctors, but by a clear, simplified and easy to apply legislation, by transparent protocols and by the continuous training of the medical staff.
“Everything in a debirocratized, simple and efficient manner, for these rules to be applied not on paper, but in reality, day by day,” Rogobete concluded.
The scandal that led to Rogobete's decision
The announcement of the Minister of Health comes in the context of the scandal that broke out about how Lavinia Vlad was treated, a patient with burns on 70% of the body, at the Big Center in Floreasca Hospital. After her conferring at a hospital in Belgium, an infection with Candida Auris was found that was not reported by the doctors from Floreasca.
Minister Alexandru Rogobete sent three checks to the Center of Arci at Floreasca Hospital, after finding out the case of Lavinia: the State Sanitary Inspection, the Control Body of the Ministry of Health and the Control Body of the Public Health Directorate.
The results of the first two controls – the State Sanitary Inspection and the Control Body of the Ministry of Health – led to the dismissal of Tiberiu Paul Neagu from the position of coordinator of the Center of Arci by the hospital manager, at the beginning of last week.
Free Europe wrote on August 11 that Lavinia Vlad was not the first patient from the Floreasca Hospital infected with Candida Auris. Seven months before, in December 2024, a patient died infected with the same fungus, but the infection does not appear in the records of the health authorities.
The deceased patient last year was called Marin Vlase, was 72 years old and was admitted to the Clinical Cardiovascular Surgery section in Floreasca, according to the documents seen by Free Europe. He and two other patients have infected each other, accuse their relatives.
After Lavinia Vlad's sister pointed out how the medical staff treated her, several infections with Candida Auris were discovered in patients in Floreasca.
The burning section of the Floreasca Emergency Hospital in Bucharest will lose its center of burns, announced, on August 12, the Minister of Health, Alexandru Rogobete, at the end of the control that checked the way in which the center was authorized, in 2022, in the mandate of the former Minister of Health, Alexandru Rafila.
“We will re -instruct the Center for the Arcii Center, which will become a functional unit for Arcii and will lose its status as the center of Arci,” announced on Tuesday Alexandru Rogobete, at the end of a meeting with the manager of Floreasca Hospital and with the representatives of the Public Health Directorate.
“In the discussion with the current manager, who has purchased services for technical approval and design in order to recompose the center of Arși, from 6 salons for critical patients will be reduced to 4, to create the necessary space for all the equipment provided by the norm, including a complete ventilation system,” added Rogobete. Functional units for burns can only treat patients with medium intensity burns.
