A protest against the authorities’ intention to merge “Toma Ciorbă” Clinical Infectious Diseases Hospital and the Dermatology and Communicable Diseases Hospital was mounted at the Ministry of Health on Thursday. The participants sought the resignation of Minister of Health Ala Nemerenco. Concomitantly, the Ministry issued a press release, saying that this reorganization doesn’t imply the closing of any of the two hospitals as the two institutions will only be merged under common management given that they both treat contagious diseases, IPN reports.
Employees of the two hospitals expressed their disagreement with the merger earlier too and staged a march in central Chisinau to draw the authorities’ attention to their dissatisfaction. They also issued statements, demanding to renounce the merger and to secure projects and grants for the two institutions so as to stimulate their development. There were also assertions that someone is interested in the lot on which “Toma Ciorbă” Hospital is situated.
For its part, the Ministry of Health said that both of the hospitals are tertiary institutions and work at low capacity from economic-financial viewpoint. The Dermatology and Communicable Diseases Hospital uses only about 40% of the available beds, while “Toma Ciorbă” Hospital doesn’t have an intensive care unit, a pediatric unit and modern laboratories.
This way, the common management of the two hospitals will contribute to the optimization of the administrative processes and the funds available to them so as to concentrate the financial resources on improving the quality of medical services provided for the population.
“The reorganization implies not the closing of the medical institutions, as it has been rumored, but the optimization of costs, restructuring and investments in infrastructure, capacities and skills, in the joint management of the institutions,” the Ministry said in a press release. The Ministry noted that the efficient use of the capacities of the two hospitals will significantly contribute to achieving these objectives so as to ensure a robust health system that can cope with the current and future challenges and will improve both the working conditions of health workers and the quality of medical services offered to patients.
