The century-old building of Odobescu Maternity in Timișoara is gradually collapsing each year, endangering patients and medical staff. The structural integrity is compromised, and several areas have been closed after a ceiling on the ground floor collapsed.
The maternity unit serving the western region of Romania, the largest functional facility of its kind at the moment, is on the brink of collapse.
The structural integrity is so compromised that last Thursday, the decision was made to close at least five maternity and midwifery rooms, the delivery room, the ophthalmology expertise center, and the neonatology outpatient clinic.
A brick fell from the ceiling and injured a worker
The ceiling collapsed in the room where consultations were held for prematurely born children with eye problems, accompanied by their mothers. Metal pillars were brought in to support the ceiling to reduce the risk of further incidents, but the problems do not end there: the floor on the upper floor has sagged dangerously, and huge cracks have formed in the sanitary groups.
Everything happened after an incident on May 29 that would have been hushed up by the management of the maternity unit belonging to the Municipal Hospital. An electrician suffered a workplace accident after the ground floor ceiling collapsed, and a brick hit him in the head, as reported by Renașterea Bănățeană.
According to the publication, there are cracks in the structural integrity of the entire building, and the first-floor floor where the patients' rooms were located has collapsed in several places. Last week, workers were brought in to patch up, here and there, what can be urgently repaired, but serious work is needed, and it will be several months before the closed spaces can be put back into use.
"The city hall's team of experts went to the site. The floor was secured. Two rooms were evacuated. At the moment, we have been assured that it is just a localized floor collapse," said Ramona Gîdea, director of medical care at the Municipal Hospital Timișoara, to TVR Info.
Only minor renovations have been done
Odobescu Maternity consists of two buildings attached to each other. The large building is rented from a foundation, except for the second floor, built during the communist period, while the smaller building, connected to the first one, is owned by the Timișoara City Hall.
Both are very old, built in 1895. Since then, they have undergone several minor renovations, both inside and on the facades, but in the 130 years of existence, no structural reinforcement work has been done.
While the facade, basement, and ground floor of the small building were renovated through a European project in 2014 - 2015, the main building has not even had its facade renovated, so pedestrians have been passing by at their own risk for several years, risking plaster falling on them. Passersby, as well as pregnant women coming to give birth, are greeted by printed notices on the walls: "Caution, plaster falling!"
Local authorities and representatives of the municipal hospital, to which Odobescu Maternity belongs, are awaiting the results of the expertise to see what needs to be done.
Odobescu Maternity in Timișoara should have been relocated long ago. Two years ago, a project was submitted for the construction of a new building with funds from the National Recovery and Resilience Plan. There is already a plot of land and a construction permit, but the project has not been approved.
In Timișoara, there is a newly built building completed in March, but the other maternity unit in the city, Bega, will be relocated there.
Four counties affected by the partial closure of the maternity unit
The partial closure of Odobescu Maternity has a regional impact. It is the largest maternity unit in the Western region, with 246 beds. In the last three years, between 3,000 and 4,000 births have taken place here.
The clinical departments of obstetrics-gynecology and neonatology of the Municipal Emergency Clinical Hospital Timișoara are classified at level 3 according to the provisions of Minister of Health Order no. 1881/2006 and provide care for mothers and extremely premature newborns, receiving pregnant women and newborns from medical units in the Western Region, which includes patients from the counties of Timiș, Arad, Caraș-Severin, and Hunedoara.
The Rare Ocular Diseases Center, the only European accredited center in Romania, served patients of all ages from all counties in the absence of other space and will close its activities.