Health Minister Vlad Voiculescu cuts off hospital manager contests

The new Health Minister Vlad Voiculescu decided to suspend for the upcoming weeks the contests for appointing the hospital managers until a new management contract for hospitals is available, which should also comprise several performance criteria. His decision comes shortly after a new scandal related to the hospital management came to surface following journalistic investigations.

Health Minister Vlad Voiculescu decided to send the ministry’s control body to the Ophthalmology Hospital in Bucharest, after revelations about the hospital manager, Monica Pop, following the survey published on Wednesday by Tolo.ro, the blog of journalist Catalin Tolontan. According to the journalistic investigation, Monica Pop has hired out a hospital room to a firm that then hired her for four years, a period during which she also held the position of manager of the public hospital.

The article also reveals that PSD Senator Florian Popa would have protected Monica Pop in the position of Head of the Ophthalmology Hospital in Bucharest.

Monica Pop, manager of the Ophthalmology Hospital in Bucharest since 1994, is the longest-serving manager of the hospital in the Capital city.

“It’s the minister’s conviction that it’s time to analyze and amend the selection procedure of the future hospital managers. The selection process is a very important part. A management contract for hospitals is under way. It should contain clear performance criteria. One standard will relate to the real report of the nosocomial infections. We’ll pay more attention to the hygiene criteria, we don’t want dirty hospitals in Romania anymore. Another element is the patients’ feedback. No contest to occupy the manager position will take place until the management project is concluded and the deadline is several weeks,” said the Health Ministry’s spokesperson, Laurenţiu Colintineanu.