The Foundation for the Defence of Citizens Against State Abuses has notified the National Anticorruption Directorate regarding the extremely serious situation at the Bucharest Oncological Institute. The largest oncology hospital in Romania has ended up sending its patients home due to the lack of cytostatics and even some common medications.
FACIAS is asking prosecutors to verify public information according to which the current crisis of cytostatics at the Bucharest Oncological Institute could overlap with a serious practice, signalled even by the Ministry of Health, regarding the suspicion that, in the past, medicines had been stolen from the medical unit to be redirected to the private system.
FACIAS requests the investigation of possible crimes of theft, aggravated theft, abuse of office, negligence in office and other related acts. At the same time, FACIAS asks prosecutors to clarify whether the lack of cytostatics at the Bucharest Oncological Institute is exclusively the result of serious administrative errors or whether a mechanism operated at the hospital level through which vital drugs, purchased with public funds, disappeared from the legal circuit, leaving patients without treatment.
Regarding this situation, FACIAS requested public clarifications from both the Bucharest Oncological Institute and the National Health Insurance House.
In addition to suspicions regarding the theft of medicines, FACIAS requests in its complaint the verification of the way in which funds and supply procedures were managed at the Bucharest Oncological Institute, in order to determine whether the delay in requesting funds and failure to comply with the mandatory notification may constitute acts of negligence or abuse of office. According to public statements by the president of the National Health Insurance House, the management of the medical unit requested additional funds for cytostatics with an unjustified delay of 10 days and did not comply with the mandatory notification procedure of the Bucharest Health Insurance House.
According to the same source, the current crisis of cytostatics at the Bucharest Oncological Institute could have been avoided by timely administrative measures, including the temporary borrowing of drugs from other hospitals. Therefore, FACIAS is asking prosecutors to verify whether the lack of treatments was favoured or aggravated by the persons responsible for fulfilling financial management and supply obligations.
At the same time, FACIAS is asking prosecutors to establish the damage and the necessary measures to recover it, considering that we are talking about both a possible patrimonial damage and a human one, by endangering the health and lives of oncologic patients.
FACIAS will continue to monitor this case and inform the public on the progress of the investigation.