Although hospitals in România have many
problems, those in the east are suffering the most. Of all the counties
the poorest ones are Botosani, Vaslui, Galati, Braila, Buzau, Ialomita, Cálárasi,
Giurgiu, Teleorman and Vilcea (source: Ministry of Health, Bucuresti).
Most hospitals do not have enough money for basic medicines let alone any
ancillary items such as lighting.
While
I am at a hospital working, I find and visit my next hospital. I go with
a translator, meet the director and look around the hospital for myself
to see if they really do need help. With some practice you can usually
tell which are the directors you can trust, by looking at how they are
dressed (expensive clothes) and how the staff react to the director. The
director of each hospital is asked to sign a contract (containing seven
conditions) between the hospital and the Trust.
These conditions include providing accommodation in the hospital, finish
fitting the lights before the Trust leaves România
and allowing the Trust to remove
all the aid given 
and
report the hospital to the Ministry of Health in Bucuresti should any of
the terms be broken. This contract works very well and stops any aid
disappearing. A list of all the aid given is signed by the director and
the Trust and used for future
visits. So far all the hospitals helped by the
Trust have not given any trouble
and no serious problems have arisen. While the hospital themselves fit
the lights, the Trust goes round
the villages and fits the lights in the dispensaries.
The hospitals so far helped are:
| Pátárlagele |
Buzau |
a general hospital with
dispensaries. |
August 1993 |
| Dudesti |
Braila |
old people with chronic
diseases. |
April 1994 |
| Tandarei |
Ialomita |
a general hospital with
dispensaries. |
August 1994 |
| Viziru |
Braila |
old people with chronic
diseases. |
April 1995 |
| Pechea |
Galati |
a general hospital with
dispensaries. |
August 1995 |
| Ivesti |
Galati |
a general hospital with
dispensaries. |
April 1996 |
| Malaiesti |
Vaslui |
old people with chronic
diseases. |
August 1996 |
| Murgeni |
Vaslui |
a general hospital with
dispensaries. |
April 1997 |
| Pogoanele |
Buzau |
a general hospital with
dispensaries. |
August 1997 |
| Feirbinti |
Ialomita |
a general hospital with
dispensaries. |
April 1998 |
| Gurbanesti |
Cálárasi |
old people with chronic
diseases. |
August 1998 |
| Budesti |
Cálárasi |
a general hospital with
dispensaries. |
April 1999 |
| Dor Márunt |
Cálárasi |
TBC hospital. |
August 1999 |
| Lehliu Gará |
Cálárasi |
a large general hospital |
April 2000 |
| Lehliu
Gará |
Cálárasi |
a large general
hospital |
August 2000 |
| Singureni |
Giurgiu |
hospital for infectious
diseases |
April 2001 |
The
main problem dispensaries have is that they are at the bottom of the
hierarchy for funds from the hospitals they are connected to. Each
community hospital has a number of dispensaries, in the villages,
connected to it. These dispensaries are of different sizes depending on
the size of the village they are in. The smallest having only one doctor
and medical assistant (nurse), the larger ones up to five doctors and
nurses. Another problem for dispensaries is the fact that they are based
in villages where you find a very basic and sometimes primitive way of
life. It is difficult to encourage doctors to live or work in these
basic conditions. If the dispensary is situated in a village near to a
large town or city then many doctors live in the town and travel every
day to the village. This is not possible in rural areas although some
doctors will live at the dispensary in the week and travel home at
weekends. Due to the money situation some dispensaries do not have, and
cannot get, a doctor to work in them. It is then left to the nurse to
run the dispensary. The usual times of opening of these dispensaries are
from 9:00am to 2:00pm. Because some of the doctors travel to the
dispensary from
home they do not always turn up every day of the week. Much of the work
undertaken is done by the nurses, many of them work hard dealing with
all the paperwork as well as medical treatment and emergencies of all
kinds. I have seen, in the dispensary at Ciresu, my first and only
anthrax case. A young man came in with this very infectious disease to
see the doctor with a large blister on his hand. The doctor spent
several minutes looking for a surgical glove with no holes in. She
examined the man and discovered that there was an old man and a young
girl with the same symptoms. If anthrax is diagnosed early it can easily
be cured by simple antibiotics, but when it develops into blisters there
is nothing that can be done. The man and his wife knew this and were
very upset. The doctors biggest problem was notifying the health
authority because it is a highly infectious disease and then had to ask
the police to go along with her to the village to take the old man and
young girl to the county hospital.
From the beginning of this year (2000) dispensaries
no longer come under the control of the local hospital. The doctor in a
dispensary is now in charge of that dispensary, which leaves me with a
problem. When the dispensaries were under hospital control it was easy
to instal the lights, knowing that they would always be there no matter
which doctor worked in the dispensary. I could also leave the spares for
all the dispensaries at the hospital. Now that the dispensaries are
independent, I would have to leave spares at each place, and I believe
that the lights and spares would go when the doctor left. If anybody has
any ideas how to get round this problem, please contact the
Webmaster.
In
Dudesti hospital I found a little girl living with the old women in one
of the wards (salons). I was told that they found her at the railway
station on her own, could not speak and had no luggage. The hospital is
now looking after her as no-one can find her relatives.
The Trust has a
difficult time raising finds for this work, so if you can help please
contact us.
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Hospitals
in Eastern România
