Scandal in the medical world between the head of the Romanian ATI Society and a Romanian doctor from Germany, adviser to the minister: “Young hater” / “Aberrant accusations”. Rogobete's announcement

The President of the Romanian Society of Anesthesia and Intensive Care, Dr. Şerban Bubenek, requested that the doctor Iuliu Torje, honorary advisor to the Minister of Health, be declared persona non grata at any event organized by the “Carol Davila” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, accusing him of defaming and insulting Romanian specialists, especially those of ATI, on the Internet. In response, the doctor who practices in Germany claims that the accusations are “aberrant and broken from reality”.

Şerban Bubenek asked the rector of the “Carol Davila” University of Medicine and Pharmacy (UMFCD) in Bucharest, Viorel Jinga, and the president of the Romanian College of Physicians (CMR), Cătălina Poiană, to take measures against the doctor Iuliu Torje, after he was a lecturer and trainer at a specialized event, the Emergency Surgery & Trauma Congress, according to an open letter dated November 5 and published by journalist Carla Tănasie.

Bubenek accused Torje, a Romanian anesthesiologist practicing in Germany, of repeatedly discrediting the medical body in Romania.

“Dr. Iuliu Torje is a young hater (under 40 years old) of doctors in Romania, especially of doctors in the ATI specialty, members of SRATI whom he attacks, defames and insults in a mean and repeated way starting from 2020 (Pandemic!) and until today, especially on his Facebook account and on any other social media he can access”, declared Bubunek.

The President of the Romanian Society of Intensive Care Anesthesia claims that Torje, although “he presents himself as a great ATI specialist and especially an expert in ECMO”, cites data that does not attest to his medical training.

“The doctor in question was a repeat student of the Faculty of Medicine from Oradea, where he fled to Sibiu to finish his studies and you could defame them accordingly. Then he went to Germany where it seems that he became an ATI specialist at a hospital in the south. He is NOT a member of the CMR. He does NOT have the right to practice in Romania, but even on the website of the EST-2025 event it is announced that he represents Romania!, which is a gross falsehood and a misuse fake!”, also stated the president of the Romanian Society of Anesthesia and Intensive Therapy.

Bubenek claims that several ATI doctors in the ATI Clinic 1 of the Emergency Institute for Cardiovascular Diseases “Prof. Dr CC Iliescu”, registered as at the EST Congress, have announced their withdrawal from this event due to the participation of doctor Iuliu Torje.

What does the Minister of Health say?

The president of the Romanian Society of ATI requested the rector of UMFCD and the president of the College of Doctors from Romania to declare Torje, characterized as “the hater of Romanian doctors”, as persona non grata at any event of the “Carol Davila” University of Medicine and Pharmacy.

Bubenek also claimed that the Minister of Health “dismissed from the honorary position” Torje, but this did not happen, as he claimed on 5 November.

“He was not revoked, but today I am revoking him, because he got into this national scandal in which I do not want the Minister of Health to be associated or involved,” the Minister of Health, Alexandru Rogobete, told HotNews on Sunday.

The minister also says that it is about “a conflict between two doctors”, in which the Ministry of Health “will not be involved”.

Doctor Iuliu Torje responded to the accusations

In response to the accusations made by the head of SRATI, Dr. Iuliu Torje stated that the letter is a method of intimidation and denigration, firmly rejecting the accusations.

“This post is the first part of my public response to the letter sent by the management of SRATI, a letter in which I am repeatedly defamed, with statements that are not only completely unfounded, but exceed any limits of a professional dialogue. We are talking about aberrant accusations, completely disconnected from reality, accusations that clearly intend to compromise my reputation and call into question my training, integrity and even my quality as a doctor,” said Torje, in a long post on his Facebook page.

According to him, “SRATI's letter represents a manifestation of personal hatred” and “an attack against a doctor who demonstrated that in the diaspora you can achieve results through work, not through connections.”

He also described the move as an attack on freedom of expression.

“It's an attack on a 'young hater' as I've been called – as if youth is a criterion of incompetence. However, this “young hater” was a speaker at the biggest extracorporeal circulation congress – EURO-ELSO, both in Krakow and in Milan this year,” Torje emphasized.

The doctor presented his professional path and published several diplomas acquired. Iuliu Torje states that he is an anesthesiologist and that he started his professional career in Germany in December 2016, where he arrived as a result of an Erasmus scholarship immediately after completing six years of university. After obtaining the full right to practice, he began his residency, spending two and a half years in a common trunk that included General Surgery, Traumatology and Intensive Care.

Torje denounces pressure

Since 2019, Torje claims to have dedicated his activity exclusively to intensive cardiovascular therapy. As of 2020, he states that he obtained a superspecialization in Emergency Medicine and Intensive Care through the exam. Two years ago, he became a specialist anesthesiologist, following the exam taken at the College of Physicians in the Land of Hessen, in Frankfurt.

Also in 2023, he says he was promoted to the position of Oberarzt, the equivalent of the primary doctor in Romania. In May 2025, according to his words, he took over the position of Medical Coordinator of the hospital's ECMO center, a supra-regional center that annually manages over 170 procedures and offers international interventions, including patients taken from Romania.

He denied Bubenek's accusation that he was a “repetitive student” at Oradea, appreciating that it is “a proof of contempt for the truth and for minimal professionalism.”

He also emphasized that he is a specialist doctor, with a passed exam, presenting documents.

Torje accused SRATI of pressuring the Ministry of Health to remove him from his honorary position.