The ruling coalition leaders are convening in the weekly sitting on Monday, with new tensions in store following the PNL-URS scandal prompted by the eviction of the patients at Foisor Orthopedic Hospital on Saturday night after the hospital had been turned into a Covid support unit.
As the Foisor Hospital has become Covid unit, the non-Covid patients admitted there were discharged or relocated to another hospitals on Saturday night.
The 90 patients who were hospitalized at Foisor were evicted on stretchers or in wheelchairs. 20 of them were relocated to another units, while were discharged. Surgeries for some patients have been delayed.
The Foisor Hospital had 90 Covid intensive care beds connected to oxygen and 20 intensive care beds for non-Covid cases.
However, the eviction was considered at the last minute and the situation became tensed in front of the hospital, with the relatives of the patients protesting against the situation and gendarmes and policemen being deployed on the scene to calm things down.
The scandal has though turned into a political row between the Liberal PM Florin Citu and a part of the Liberal side and the USR-PLUS’s minister of Health, Vlad Voiculescu, whom PNL accused of being responsible for the eviction of the Foisor patients.
Sources told mainstream media that several Liberals intend to ask for Voiculescu’s dismissal. On the other camp, USR-PLUS has voiced support for Voiculescu and asked for explanations, also amid another scandal after the PM’s Control Body had sent to the prosecutors the file probing into a Health Ministry’s adviser accessing the data base on vaccination.
Voiculescu blames on the Foisor hospital manager
In a press conference held on Sunday evening, the Health minister Vlad Voiculescu said he has no blame for the scandal of Foisor eviction. He argued the medical unit is under the authority of the Bucharest City Hall and the hospital manager had been appointed by the former mayor Gabriela Firea and that it was the hospital manager who boycotted the entire situation.
“About the Foisor Hospital becoming a Covid-19 unit , discussion are not recent, they ate back one year ago. The Health Ministry has given the green light for it to become a Covid support unit, for it had many intensive care beds and the life of so many people depend on the ICU seats. The transfer of the patients was unacceptably delayed and the manager’s permit have also been delayed“, Voiculescu explained.
“Foisor Hospital is not under the authority of the Health Ministry, but under the one of the Bucharest City Hall. So, the ministry cannot decide over the head of the manager, even it there are crisis situations. Things can be blocked, either for a political, media purpose, or because the crisis situation is not understood”, he added.
Voiculescu also said “it is regrettable what happened”, arguing “it was an attempt to use an emergency situation to gain political capital”.
In retort, PM Florin Citu said in a press statement later on that “every patient in Romania is linked to the Health Ministry”.
In a Facebook post, the prime minister asked all ministers in his Cabinet to show “transparency, coherence and professionalism”. The PM avoided directly accusing minister Voiculescu for the situation at Foisor Hospital, yet he argued “it is a case of honour here”. “Let’s see if there is any honour left in Romania”.
From the USR-PLUS camp, there is endorsement for Voiculescu, with sources saying “replacing Vlad Voiculescu from the Health Ministry is out of the question”.
“Things are very simple, we clearly said that Vlad Voiculescu has pout support. If Florin Citu doesn’t take this into account and sacks him, then the Government is down. The Government was invested with our votes included, we endorsed the Cabinet in this form, so Citu cannot decided on a USR-PLUS member”, sources said, as quoted by Digi24.
USR-PLUS co-chairman Dan Barna also said that the fight issue is just “marketing”. “We are seldom with Florin and Vlad and watch TV and we cannot abstain ourselves from laughing. The idea that there is a fight inside the Cabinet is fake”, Barna told Aleph News.
Latest news: USR leader Dan Barna said after the coalition meeting that Health Minister Vlad Voiculescu remains in office and the ruling coalition is moving on. Barna said the discussion had not been about dismissals, but about how there could be a better coordination in the Cabint to prevent such situations as the one at the Foisor hospital.
However, the chairman of the National Liberal Party (PNL), Ludovic Orban that maintaining Voiculescu as Health minister had been USR-PLUS’s “exclusive decision”, and that there is “a point” to which the coalition parties can decide on their ministers, but there is a point that the PM is entitled to decide on replacing a minister. Orban voiced discontent for the Health minister’s activity, adding that “unless an improvement is noticed” he could be replaced.
What is the point of a health ministry that does not have any control over hospitals ? Romania does not really have a political system, it just appears to be a club, while the mafia and barons burn people.