The Romanian Intelligence Service (SRI) stated on Monday that it was aware of the situation on the nosocomial infections in hospitals, informing that it has sent about 100 reports to the decision-making bodies in the past five years.
“In the documents addressed to the legal decision makers regarding the nosocomial infections, aspects related to the poor quality of the disinfectants used in hospitals countrywide have also been presented. Among the legal beneficiaries of our reports there were presidents of the county councils, prefects, ministers, prime-minister and Romania’s President. All these decision makers have received constant reports on the disruptions of the public health system in Romania. In the past five years, SRI has sent around 100 reports, including on matters related to the nosocomial infections in hospitals,” SRI officials announced on Monday.
Former president, premier and a former Health minister denied having received such notifications.
On Monday, ex-president Basescu in a Facebook post asked for the intelligence service’s notifications to be disclosed, after previously denying he had ever received such reports from SRI.
“The SRI spokesperson’s statements show that the institution has informed the Presidency in the past 5 years regarding the deficient treatment of the hospital infections, the diluted disinfectant substances, delivered by Mr. Condrea’s company or by any other suppliers who had diluted or forged the disinfection substances. I thinks it’s fair and necessary that the notifications addressed to the Romania’s President on this matter should be disclosed by SRI,” reads Basescu’s post.
On the other hand, the Presidential Administration mentioned that the notifications received by Romania’s President are secret and strictly confidential, without making any further comments.
The SRI press release comes two days after former President Traian Basescu said in Facebook post that the intelligence services have never informed him about the problems of the healthcare system during his presidential term.
“I have never been informed by SRI regarding the healthcare problems, including the disinfectants affairs. I repeat: never. It was a big surprise and I understand it has been lasting for ten years, considering that the Health is considered a national security matter. What is SRI delivering is wiretapping (…),” Basescu said.
In his turn, ex-PM Victor Ponta said on Monday that it’s possible that these notifications had been filed to another person and not to him. He added that he had never seen the name of the company involved in this scandal.
“I don’t remember any notification on this topic. I can definitely tell you one thing: Based on the legal obligations, when sending such notifications to a minister, and if there was the smallest criminal hint, SRI used to send the report also to the Prosecutor’s Office, so if the notification was sent to the Prosecutor’s Office, only prosecutors from there cand tell you that,” Ponta stated.
Former Health minister Eugen Nicolăescu also said that he doesn’t remember receiving such notification from SIR during his second minister term.
The Prosecutor’s Office started an investigation on the disinfectants used in the Romanian hospitals bought from Hexi Pharma, as there are suspicions that they would have been diluted. Prosecutors and police officers conducted four searches on Saturday, taking documents from Hexi Pharma’s Bucharest head office and from their warehouse in Mogosoaia, near Bucharest.
Evidence and documents from 25 medical units in 21 counties and Bucharest have been also seized.