Literally overnight, the Ministry of Health withdrew from Wednesday evening to Thursday morning a proposal that sparked anger and talked about the moment when the drugs were not settled.

The ministry led by Alexandru Rogobete published a legislative proposal in decision -making transparency on Wednesday evening, which he gave up on Thursday morning. The ordinance provided that patients with serious diseases who did not have the same for settled treatment would no longer have the right to address justice, by presidential order, in order to shortly obtain the compensated treatment.

The provision that aroused the immediate reactions, Wednesday evening, of the patient associations in the ordinance project published by the Ministry of Health claims that:

“Art. 7031 – (1) For the requests that have as object the free or compensated insurance, the settlement of the drugs or, as the case may be, their introduction in the list comprising the international common names corresponding to the medicines with insurance with or without personal contribution on the prescription in the social health insurance system, as well as the common international names, which are granted to the forensic, in art. 242, The procedure of the presidential ordinance is not admissible, provided in Law no. 134/2010 regarding the Code of Civil Procedure, republished, with the subsequent modifications and completions. ”

What does “presidential ordinance” mean

Presidential ordinance is an emergency legal procedure by which, if the one who initiates it is successful, it intervenes quickly in repairing a right “that would be damaged by delay” or “imminent damages are prevented and that could not be repaired.” The presidential ordinance does not replace the process on the merits, which continues to take place.

Rozalia Lepadatu: “This is how the lives of many people who had immediate access to an absolutely necessary treatment were saved”

“This presidency ordinance is used by patients to obtain free treatments when the Romanian state” forgets “to compensate for serious diseases,” says Rozalina Lăpădatu, vice -president of the alliance of chronic patients in Romania and the president of the Association of Patients with Autoimmune Diseases.

Through this procedure, “the court obliges the National Health Insurance House to settle the treatment of the patient until the trial is judged, which can last a few years,” Rozalina Lăpădatu explained on Wednesday in a Facebook page, shortly after the Ministry of Health had published the project in transparency.

“This is how the lives of many people who had immediate access to an absolutely necessary treatment and not after 3 years of processes were saved,” wrote Rozalina Lăpădatu.

Monica Althamer: “Do not save by killing people!”

Monica Althamer, patient navigator and the director of the program “Public money hospitals” of the Metropolis Foundation, said on Wednesday night that “the Ministry of Health is not only delaying access to vital treatments. Now it wants to cut us the right to fight for them.”

“For years, patients with serious illnesses in Romania have not received some vital treatments in time. Not because there are no new, innovative therapies, to help them in the fight for life, but because in Romania, between the European approval of a drug and its compensation, on average, 29 months. 887 days! 481, Bulgaria – 702 days.

“It is not only cynical and deeply unfair. It is a standing ironing of the Constitution, which no one has ever allowed, until now. The violation of the right to health, the right to life and the right to justice,” wrote Monica Althamer.

“Is this the state saves? Stop the thefts, fly incompetents and thieves from those chairs in which you sleep! Stop paying Hospital managers with 2 employees to clean the country's largest hospitals, on hundreds of thousands of euros annually! Do not save people!

Mihăiță Bariz: “The only quick procedure by which patients can defend their right to treatment”

Mihăiță Bariz, a patient with cystic fibrosis and activist for patient rights, announced on Wednesday night, on his Facebook page, that he sent to the Ministry of Health “an official e-mail by which I expressed deep concern for this provision and asked to organize a public debate on this topic.”

“Given the severity of the situation, I respect the Ministry of Health respectfully to organize a public debate on this topic, according to the principles of decision -making transparency, to allow patients, patient organizations, juries and civil society to express their point of view,” wrote Mihăiță Bariz.

He explained that, practically, “patients are deprived of the only rapid procedure by which they can defend their right to treatment when life is endangered.”

In addition, says Mihăiță Bariz, “this prohibition also contravenes the case law of the European Court of Human Rights, which guarantees the right to life and a fair trial.”

Minister Rogobete: “Patients should not suffer because of legislative imperfections”

The Ministry of Health announced on Thursday morning that it has decided to withdraw this provision of the order of ordinance “following direct consultations with patient associations and with representative representatives”.

“Patients should not suffer from legislative imperfections or incomplete solutions. Our obligation, as a state and as a ministry, is to find correct, fast and ethical mechanisms through which people have access to the necessary treatments, especially where there is no therapeutic alternative,” says the institution run by Alexandru Rogobete, in a statement transmitted on Thursday morning.

The solution, says the Ministry of Health, “it is not to limit the rights of patients, but to come with clearer and more sustainable rules, which will ensure balance between the responsibility of the authorities, the obligations of the pharmaceutical companies and, in particular, the right of each patient.”

However, the institution led by Alexandru Rogobete announces a stricter monitoring mechanism “in this area:” The prescribing doctor will have the obligation to follow the evolution of the patient, to evaluate the therapeutic benefit and to report the results quarterly. In the event of obtaining an additional therapeutic benefit, after the first annual evaluation, a CNAS will be applied between CNAS The holder of the authorization to put the drug market on the market, so that the patients are supported and the system will remain sustainable. ”

Until “experts from the Ministry of Health, the National Agency for Medicines and Medical Devices in Romania and the National Health Insurance House will identify a complete administrative formula, the respective provision is withdrawn from the current ordinance project”, the Ministry of Health says.

Reaction after withdrawal

Following the announcement of the Ministry of Health regarding the withdrawal of the proposal, the activist Mihăiță Bariz wrote that “this withdrawal represents an important step in the direction of protecting the patients of the patients and a positive signal of opening to the dialogue by the authorities. It is essential that the legislative process will remain transparent and to constantly include the patients, so that the patients adopted.