Save Romania Union (USR) MPs will submit a bill proposing to make it compulsory for the wards of health units to be equipped with a panic button for each patient, and for the first-emergency units and intensive care wards to be equipped with video surveillance cameras, the vice-chairman of the Health Committee of the Chamber of Deputies, Emanuel Ungureanu, announced on Tuesday.
„The legislative proposal that we are considering and will submit to Parliament in a few days says one fundamental thing: the panic button must exist in all wards, state and private, and must be mandatory by law. Financial reasons cannot be invoked. Billions of euros enter the healthcare system and money is never found for the fundamental things that mean the trust of the patient who presses the button and measuring the time until a medical professional comes and listens to the need. Another fundamental thing is the video camera, which is not the establishment of the police system in the healthcare system, but our friend, both of the patient and the doctor. The video camera makes the difference between a negligent or malicious person and those who do their job very well,” Ungureanu told a press conference.
According to Ungureanu, not only the police and the prosecution should have access to these video cameras. „The trust between doctor and patient must be built through dialogue and objective means (video camera) that reveal inappropriate behavior of both doctors and patients,” Ungureanu added.
In her turn, the USR spokesperson, MP Cristina Pruna, called for „a reform in health care through which doctors and patients will be at the center of the Romanian medical system”.
„We, the patients, have become afraid to go to the hospital, and doctors are afraid to practice their profession and exercise their profession with dignity. We’re talking about a profound distrust in the health system. The babies burned at Giulesti Maternity Hospital, the case of Alexandra who cried for help in the hospital, the case at St. Pantelimon Hospital are tragedies that we are looking at and that we must stop. (…) Each one of us has heard of someone who is afraid to go to the hospital for treatment. Patients must have a real right to choose, and doctors must exercise their profession with dignity,” Pruna said.
She recalled that, more than six months ago, USR submitted a bill to Parliament by which the patient can choose his health insurer – CNAS or a private insurer that has contracts with state and private hospitals.
„Monopolies have never brought anything good. CNAS has a monopoly at the moment (…) Solving the situation of the health care system cannot be achieved through quick fixes to specific problems,” Cristina Pruna added.
AGERPRES
