The Foundation for the Defense of the Citizen Against State Abuses (FACIAS) has sued the Institute of Forensic Medicine "Mina Minovici" (IML) for refusing to provide public information on the number of people who have suffered or died from nosocomial infections contracted in health care facilities in Romania.
The situation generated by the danger of contacting nosocomial infections in Romanian hospitals was of great interest to the media a few years ago. As a result of the public outcry, policy makers adopted Law 3/2021 on the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of healthcare-associated infections in medical units and residential homes for adults in need in Romania.
While everything is fine and dandy, the law lacks the implementing methodological rules and these have not been published even two years after the law was adopted. Consequently, in true Romanian style, we have a law, but the relevant institutions cannot use it.
For this reason, FACIAS has initiated a project which, on the basis of reliable information provided by the INML, could induce decision-makers to develop and approve the methodological rules. So the first step was to ask INML to provide the number of people who have suffered or died from nosocomial infections. Unfortunately, although FACIAS mentioned that the requested information was of public interest, INML ignored the request and did not even provide a registration number.
As a result, FACIAS had to sue INML to obtain the requested information.
On the other hand, FACIAS notes with disappointment the high level of opacity of a public institution in matters that affect Romanians admitted to hospitals on a daily basis and therefore considers that in some cases the only way to move things forward is to obtain it following a court decision.
