The whirlwind of political and management causes behind the tragedy at Neamţ hospital: 8 directors in 11 months

The tragedy that occurred on the night of November 14 at the Department of Anesthesia and Intensive Care (ATI) of the Neamţ County Hospital once again calls into question the involvement of politics in the field of health, such as rescue management, carried out by people who have no skills in the field. A huge chain of causes, most unrelated to the medical act itself, led to the death of 10 people and serious injuries to three others, and an analysis of the situation shows that everything could have been avoided if the law had been observed.

After a period of stuttering about the cause of the fire in the ATI section (which was supported by Covid-19), authorities are beginning to outline a scenario. The candle (the first hypothesis) and the defective plug are out of the question, anticipating a technical cause quite difficult to anticipate: a short circuit in an injection machine for the dosage of drug treatment to patients.

Beyond that, however, there is a whole complex of circumstances that turned a fire, which could be extinguished in a few seconds, without special effects, into the tragedy that followed. It must be said that the Piatra Neamţ Hospital holds a true national record in terms of the number of heads who have been in charge of it: in just 11 months there have been no less than eight directors. All were politically appointed. Six of them by Ionel Arsene, the president of the local branch of PSD and of the Neamţ City Council (the health unit is subordinate to the German legislature), and two managers, in a state of emergency, by the Ministry of Health, headed by the liberal Nelu Tătaru.

All these appointments and dismissals simply disrupted the hospital’s activity, each director, some of whom had nothing to do with the field, had their own management ideas. In addition, there have been countless changes of the deputies in the management team, also for political reasons.

Eloquent is also the case of the last director, the lawyer Lucian Micu, former mayor of the Roman municipality, appointed on October 28, 2020. He is a political pioneer (previously at PSD, UNPR, PNL, and this summer again at PSD). He was the eighth coach in almost 11 months. Shortly before the local elections, the mayor of the PNL was dismissed by the prefect after the verification of the ANI, and later of two courts, of the incompatibility status.

In an attempt to run, he joined the PSD, but a court decision drove him out of the race. In fact, a trick was used to gain access to the position of hospital manager, being appointed legal advisor to the Procurement Service for a few days, based on an ordinance designed to hire during the emergency and alert period. Most likely, Lucian Micu will lose his position in the next few days, the hospital will be taken over by the Ministry of Health.

Directors for three days or a week

“I know how to do administration, in the sense that I can give those around me the optimal conditions to be sure that they can do their job to the best of their ability. (…) It is not the most favorable time to accept being a leader in the health system, I know that, but I trust the SJU medical team that does what it can and knows better than the patients in the medical unit. Well, “Lucian Micu posted on Facebook a few days ago.

At Neamţ County Hospital, some of the directors had very short terms, even a few days and a week. Until December 18, 2019, the director was the economist Codruţ Munteanu, from December 19, 2019 to March 17, 2020 it was the turn of the surgeon Alexandru Juncu, and on March 17 he was followed by Toader Mocanu, former prefect and Senator of Neamţ.

On April 3, Dr. Florin Apostoaie, former director of Târgu Neamţ Hospital (instead of Mocanu, who had resigned due to health reasons) was appointed, and on April 10 Apostoaie was revoked, leaving it in the hands of epidemiologist Daniela Marcoci, who stated that He would only be director during the state of emergency.

On May 17, Marius Ghineţ was installed as the new hospital manager, which made him a “star” in the country, because he had a funeral home, but it lasted only three days, being dismissed, on May 20, by Ionel Arsene. . He was followed by Dr. Silviu Verzea, who decided to leave the post due to resignation, after the local press released videos and photographs in which you can see how the elderly were kept for hours in the hospital courtyard at night, under the open sky , in chairs.

It is also worth mentioning that the ATI Section at Neamţ County Hospital was not authorized by ISU. Experts say that if there had been real management, the tragedy could have been avoided, because perhaps there would have been security measures established by law: automatic fire suppression system, automatic shutdown system or low backup source. voltage.

According to Marius Filip, director of the Standards Unit within the National Authority for Health Quality Management, the hospital did not even have a designated fire prevention officer for each section or service, it did not have any person responsible for intervention in case fire and had no program. training.

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