The Foundation for the Defence of Citizens Against State Abuses (FACIAS) notified the Ministry of Health, the Bucharest College of Physicians and the Public Health Directorate of the Municipality of Bucharest, requesting urgent investigations at the Bucharest - Floreasca Emergency Clinical Hospital, after a patient hospitalized with two fractures had to wait for six days without being operated on, in conditions that she described as inhumane.
According to the testimony published in the "Dilema" magazine, the patient had suffered, following a domestic accident, a fracture to her right shoulder and one to her left tibia. After an evaluation in two medical units, she was recommended surgery, for which she was transported by private ambulance to the Floreasca Hospital.
According to the patient's testimony, she was supposed to have surgery on the same day, but the surgery was repeatedly postponed. For six days, the patient remained immobilized, without receiving any explanation about the reasons for the postponement.
During her hospitalization, the patient claims that she was kept in inhumane conditions and that she was not given the necessary pain medication. Furthermore, although she requested a cardiological consultation due to palpitations, she was only given an electrocardiogram, without a cardiologist consulting her for the next 24 hours.
The testimony also points to the poor quality of the food and the overcrowding of the ward, which had five beds, although the space was intended for a lower number of patients. The patient described the experience as feeling "like a bag of potatoes abandoned on a hospital bed."
In the absence of a definite date for the operation and psychologically affected by the conditions in which she was being treated, the patient decided to leave the Floreasca Hospital and transfer to a private medical facility. The surgical intervention cost 8,000 euros, an amount that many Romanians cannot afford.
FACIAS requested the authorities to verify the reasons why the surgery was postponed for six days, the criteria based on which the operating lists were established, the hospitalization conditions, and the way in which the patient's rights were respected.
Law No. 46/2003 on patient rights guarantees the right to the respect of human dignity, to information, to continuous medical care and to the prioritization of treatments based solely on medical criteria. No patient should be abandoned in a hospital bed, in pain and without explanation, especially when their condition requires surgical intervention.
The initiative is part of the campaign in which FACIAS, together with patient associations in Romania, requests the Ministry of Health to urgently initiate a legislative reform that would establish short and clear deadlines for resolving malpractice cases, eliminating financial blockages in these investigations, so that compensation is fair and granted on time, to truly compensate for the damages suffered by patients.