The resigned Minister of Health, Alexandru Rogobete, says he built 22 hospitals. What is the truth

“It seems a little unfair to me, when the ink on my resignation has not even dried well, that some people are already attacking a man who built, for the first time after the Revolution, 22 hospitals”, said the resigned Minister of Health, Alexandru Rogobete, in a press conference on Friday. But the reality is different.

The idea of ​​the 22 hospitals built was taken up by Alexandru Rogobete for the second time this week. For the first time, the resigned Minister of Health spoke about “22 newly built hospitals” on Monday, in the meeting in which the PSD decided to withdraw its political support to Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan.

“For the first time after the Revolution, we are not talking about one, not two, but 22 newly built hospitals,” said Rogobete on Monday, at the PSD meeting.

Before the 10 months in which he led the Ministry of Health, Alexandru Rogobete was, in the mandate of Alexandru Rafila, secretary of state responsible for the construction of hospitals in the PNRR and the centers for major burns financed by a loan from the World Bank.

Of the 22 new hospitals, only one has been put into use

HotNews asked the outgoing Health Minister what stage of construction each of these 22 new hospitals he is talking about is in.

The data received from the Ministry of Health show that only one hospital has been put into use, and two other constructions are completed and will be put into use in the next period, after obtaining the approvals.

However, there are also hospitals where the construction stage is very close to completion – 97%, 92%, 90% or 85%. Less than half of the 22 hospitals mentioned by Alexandru Rogobete are in this situation.

In addition, not all 22 cases are completely newly built hospitals, in some cases they are new buildings in which certain departments or sections of existing hospitals will operate. In the 22 “newly built” hospitals, as the minister described them, there are also two regional hospitals whose construction started in the last 12 months.

Hospitals with money from PNRR and centers for major burns, the most advanced

The PNRR-funded hospitals and major burn centers, built with money borrowed from the World Bank, are the most advanced.

8 hospitals were built with funding from PNRR. What is their status:

1. Bistrita County Emergency Hospital (new building) – put into use. “The first new county hospital, commissioned after the Revolution”, says Alexandru Rogobete.
2. “Dr. Stefan Odobleja” Military Emergency Clinical Hospital in Craiova (operational medicine, polytrauma pavilion) – the construction is completed, in the process of obtaining approvals to be put into use.
3. “Dr. Alexandru Augustin” Military Emergency Hospital in Sibiu (new pavilion, polytrauma surgical block) – the construction is completed, in the process of obtaining approvals to be put into use.
4. The “Agrippa Ionescu” hospital in Balotești, known as the SRI Hospital (infrastructure modernization) – the construction stage is at 92%.
5. Cardiovascular Diseases and Transplant Emergency Institute Târgu Mureș (cardiovascular surgical center construction) – construction stage is more than 90%.
6. “Marius Nasta” Pneumophthizology Hospital in Bucharest (tuberculosis diagnosis and treatment center) – construction stage is 89%.
7. The Cluj-Napoca County Emergency Clinical Hospital (recompartmentalization of the existing building and expansion with a new body) – the construction stage is over 85%.
8. “St. Apostol Andrei” County Emergency Clinical Hospital in Constanța (construction of a new body, maternal and child health department) – the construction stage is more than 70%.

The total investment from PNRR is 3.8 billion lei.

In addition to these, three centers for major burns, the first in Romania, are being built with money borrowed from the World Bank. The stage of these constructions:

1. The Great Burns Center in Timișoara – the construction stage is at 97%. Investment of 430 million lei.
2. The Great Burns Center in Târgu Mureș – the construction stage is at 85%. Investment of 531 million lei.
3. Mari Arși Center for Children at the Grigore Alexandrescu Hospital in Bucharest – the construction stage is at 51%. Investment of 487 million lei.

At what stage are the regional hospitals promised 10 years ago

In the governing program of 2016, PSD promised the construction of 8 regional hospitals by 2020. Meanwhile, their number was reduced to 3 – Iași, Cluj and Craiova – and their construction was postponed for years.

Currently, of the 3 hospitals left “on the books”, two are under construction and one is still waiting, after the tender was challenged.

The stage of the 3 regional hospitals:

• 1. Regional Emergency Hospital in Craiova – work started a year ago, in April 2025. The Ministry of Health did not provide HotNews with data on the construction stage.
• 2. Regional Emergency Hospital in Iași – work began earlier this year.
• 3. Regional Hospital from Cluj – the works have not started yet. Last year, 4 of the 9 associations (including the winner) that participated in the tender for the construction of the future hospital filed appeals.

The total amount invested in the construction of the 3 hospitals is 10 billion lei.

In the fall of 2024, Alexandru Rafila, the Minister of Health at the time, presented the governing program of the PSD in the field of health for the period 2025-2028, entitled “Health, a priority area”. According to the document, the most optimistic deadline for the completion of these 3 hospitals was 2028.

9 hospitals started from PNRR continue with funding from another program

Nine hospital projects with construction sites, which were initially financed from the PNRR, will continue with non-reimbursable European money from the Health Program 2021–2027. The government approved, last fall, a memorandum of transfer of the nine hospitals in the new financing program.

The Ministry of Health has not specified the status of the construction sites of these hospitals. The nine hospitals are:

• 1. Alba Iulia County Emergency Hospital – relocation and modernization of the oncology department and establishment of the interventional cardiology department;
• 2. Polytrauma Center at the “Dr. Ion Jianu” Military Emergency Hospital in Pitesti;
• 3. Pitesti County Emergency Hospital – radiotherapy laboratory;
• 4. Oradea Clinical Hospital for Infectious Diseases and Pneumophthisiology – construction and furnishing of a new building;
• 5. Emergency Hospital of the MAI “Prof. Dr. Dimitrie Gerota” Bucharest – new premises;
• 6. Giurgiu County Emergency Hospital – new hospital, stage I (oncology and neurology departments);
• 7. Timișoara Regional Institute of Oncology;
• 8. Vaslui County Emergency Hospital – building new wards;
• 9. Bacău County Emergency Hospital – completion of design and execution of the Municipal Pavilion and integration into the hospital's medical complex.

The total investment amounts to 5.18 billion lei.