The Minister of Health, after a doctor was assaulted in the resuscitation room: “It is embarrassing that in 2026 we ask people not to hit doctors”

The Minister of Health, Alexandru Rogobete, said on Saturday, on Digi24, that assaults on medical personnel are not a new phenomenon in Romanian hospitals, but he emphasized that it is “embarrassing” that, in 2026, the authorities will have to publicly ask people not to assault doctors. The statements come after a doctor was attacked by the relatives of a patient in cardio-respiratory arrest, at the hospital in Borșa.

“It is not necessarily a new phenomenon, it has not been publicized over time. But you should know that such situations have always been in Romanian hospitals. I also remember, when I was in Timișoara, it happened once. It's about education. You realize how embarrassing it is that in the year 2026, the Minister of Health or Raed Arafat will come publicly on television and ask people not to attack doctors”, said the minister.

The relevant minister added that such incidents “show a rather low level of behavior for certain categories of people”.

“I hope they are already arrested. I don't know what the situation of the aggressors is. I hope the competent institutions react quickly and protect the doctors. Yes, the doctors need this protection, because sometimes we are talking here about critical minutes in which it is inhumane, in the end, it has nothing to do with reason, it has nothing to do with anything, to go to the resuscitation room to hit the doctor who is trying to save your relative, your loved one”, explained Rogobete.

Doctor beaten while resuscitating a patient

A doctor was attacked by the relatives of a patient in cardio-respiratory arrest even while he was performing resuscitation maneuvers, in the hospital in Borșa. It is the second such incident this week.

The police in Borșa were alerted on Friday evening, via 112, that a doctor was assaulted by the relatives of a patient, in the premises of the Emergency Department of the Borșa Recovery Hospital, writes Somesanul.ro.

According to the cited source, several family members of a patient in serious condition entered the UPU, and one of them beat up the doctor, who destroyed his glasses.

The local publication writes that the anesthesiologist, who came from Bistrita to provide security, was attacked while trying to resuscitate the patient in cardio-respiratory arrest. The complaint of the woman's relatives was that they were not allowed to enter the intervention area.

Also this week, a female doctor was assaulted at the Emergency Reception Unit of the Târgu Jiu County Hospital by the family members of a patient whom the medical staff was trying to stabilize.

The reaction of DSU head Raed Arafat

The head of the Department for Emergency Situations (DSU), Raed Arafat, reacted in turn, saying that “it is unacceptable” what happened in Borşa and Târgu Jiu.

“Emergency doctors physically assaulted while trying to save lives. Not in the hallway, not in an adversarial discussion, but in the resuscitation rooms, at critical moments. In both cases, the reason was that the medical teams did not allow access to the relatives in the resuscitation space. And I want to be very clear that such a decision is not an arbitrary one. It is a basic medical rule, a safety rule, made for the patient. So that the team can work effectively and have a chance to save a life. To hit a doctor while he is fighting to save a life is an act of extreme violence. But it is also an act of irresponsibility that endangers the very patient you claim to be fighting for.”

He says that “we are increasingly seeing an increased aggression towards medical staff”: “Fueled by judgments made without knowing the facts, unverified information and this tendency to put the label of 'guilty' on the whole system and everyone who works in it. The consequences are clear: fear, tension, exhaustion and, finally, an affected medical act”.