CSM, after the Bucharest Court of Appeal suspended the judgment of a file in which a cancer patient demanded the treatment: the responsibility rests with the Romanian state
The headquarters of the Superior Council of Magistracy (CSM) in Bucharest. Photo source: Inquam Photos / George Calin
The Superior Council of Magistracy (CSM) transmitted on Thursday evening after the magistrates of the Bucharest Court of Appeal suspended a file in which a cancer patient requests the treatment, that “the real responsibility for guaranteeing the access to drugs and oncological treatments rests with the Romanian state through the competent authorities,” writes News.ro.
The judges stated that the right to life of a person is guaranteed, “the state having the positive obligation to protect and guarantee, including by adopting some financial measures, if they depend on the level of protection necessary for the effective exercise of the law”.
“It is essential to emphasize that the courts cannot replace the responsibility of the state regarding the assurance and guarantee of the right to life and health of patients with serious pathologies that require specific treatments that involve very high costs,” the SCM said.
The inclusion of certain oncological treatments on the list of compensated drugs and settlement mechanisms are in the “exclusive competence of the legislative and executive powers”.
The judges “cannot supplement the obligation of the state”
The representatives of the Section for Judges have argued that the courts are put in a position to resolve requests of the citizens who should be provided ex officio.
“The judges, by their duties, cannot replace the state's obligation to guarantee the access of patients to vital treatments. In the absence of a clear, unitary regulation and the proper financing, the courts are in a situation to solve legal actions by which the citizens request what, in reality, should be provided by the authority, and what is in the last year,” is shown in the statement.
In addition, the SCM also explained that the protection of patients' lives should not be “a legal dispute placed exclusively to the courts”.
According to the quoted source, “dramatic cases, such as the one reported in the media, clearly shows the need to adopt coherent, predictable public policies and a settlement mechanism that prevents the humiliation of patients and guarantee their right to life and health.”
The process of the oncological patient
Digi 24 reported on Thursday, the case of an oncological patient, whose treatment is not found on the list of compensated drugs.
The patient's lawyer presented on Thursday, September 11, at the Bucharest Court of Appeal and found that the file was not included in the list of cases that were judged on this day. This is a file with the object of the presidential ordinance for “insurance, to the applicant, on a prescription, in 100%compensation”, of a medicine, “until the final settlement of the substantive file”.
According to him, the patient he represents in court suffers from biliary cancer and needs this treatment, but the drug is not compensated for this type of cancer.
“It was requested to oblige that drug to be passed in the list of compensated. Until the process is resolved, a presidential ordinance is formulated by which it is requested that for a limited period, a measure to prevent an impact, damage that someone would suffer. In my case, the damage would be that the man would not receive the drug,” the lawyer explained.
The suspension of the file came in the context of the protest of the magistrates, although, for the most part, they transmitted that they will judge all the cases of urgent character, especially in terms of establishing medical treatments. On the same day, the Bucharest Court of Appeal judged a similar file.
