Most of the doctors in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at St. Pantelimon Hospital in Bucharest announce their resignation from shifts, hospital admissions are blocked, and several surgeries have been postponed this morning.
Their reaction comes after the detention of two female doctors, accused of intentionally causing the death of a 54-year-old patient.
The number of suspicious deaths in the ICU is much higher, but prosecutors have managed to document only one case of murder by reducing the dose of noradrenaline.
The hospital management announces a spontaneous strike at the ICU and is considering resigning.
On the other hand, the Minister of Health emphasizes that he is a microbiologist and cannot make a statement; the court must decide and the guilty party must pay because "deliberate murder is hard to conceive and absolutely unacceptable."
Representatives of St. Pantelimon Hospital claim that the medical unit is underfunded: "We are the emergency hospital in Bucharest with the lowest patient fee."
Now, the ICU doctors at the hospital demand an end to the "media lynching" of their colleagues, whom they consider innocent.
The head of the ICU department says that the doctors are not afraid, but they prefer to go to places where they are not "trampled on."
She explained that there are 12 doctors in the ICU department. In the conditions where the two female doctors are under investigation, one is on leave, and another doctor "does not yet know if he will resign," the other eight doctors have decided to give up shifts.
Here's the Strike, It's Not a Strike
Doctor Bogdan Socea, the hospital manager, confirmed that several doctors went on a spontaneous strike this morning.
"The anesthesiologists and intensive care doctors who are in the hospital have decided to go on a spontaneous strike and not administer anesthesia to chronic or scheduled patients. Of course, they cover emergencies, shifts, plus patients in therapy. Ten surgeries were postponed early on. They said they are preparing a document in which they will all sign to resign from their shift and hospital contracts," said Socea, quoted by Agerpres.
When asked if the hospital could function without ICU doctors, he replied: "No. It would mean a deadlock."
"It's not exactly a spontaneous strike, we are here to care for the ICU patients. Of course, we won't kick them out.
We just informed all departments, as we have submitted our resignation from shifts; for now, no hospital admissions can be made.
I'm very sorry for the situation. Resigning from shifts starting tomorrow, resigning from the hospital when we manage to stabilize the ICU patients, we can't leave them. Resignation will follow. We all leave. All colleagues," said the head of the ICU department, Florina Pompilian, quoted by News.ro.
"We Are Not Afraid of Anything"
The doctor says that the pressure has reached "incredibly tolerable" levels.
"We are not afraid of anything, but we cannot carry out our activities in such conditions. It's a tough specialty, but it's a specialty that is being tarnished at the moment. We prefer to go to places where we have peace and where we are not trampled on.
It's unacceptable to have a complaint every week that we didn't save a patient with an eight-year neoplasm, that we didn't administer a certain dose of noradrenaline because that's what the family member believes. What are we talking about?" added Florina Pompilian.
Dedicated and Empathetic Female Doctors
Regarding the two female doctors accused of causing a patient's death by deliberately reducing the noradrenaline dose, the ICU chief says they are "dedicated and empathetic." One of them completed a training program in France, which is seen as an argument.
"One of the accused doctors completed a specialization program in France. They are part of Dr. Voicu's team; we found them here, dedicated doctors who fulfill all medical tasks, empathetic. We haven't noticed anything in their attitude. We worked side by side, the whole team in this department," stated Florina Pompilian.
The doctor argues that noradrenaline is not an essential medication for the survival of patients in intensive care.
"Let's be clear, noradrenaline is not a medication without which the patient cannot survive, so not administering it does not kill the patient, let's understand that! It is a medication given in many pathologies, it has the role of supporting the patient's blood pressure," explained the doctor.
Moreover, there have been patients who survived for three months, while others survived less than 24 hours in the ICU.
Rafila: I Am a Microbiologist and Cannot Comment on the ICU
The Minister of Health, Alexandru Rafila, held a press conference on Thursday.
"I spoke with the hospital manager because the situation created distrust - the director and manager decided to resign.
The director has already done so, and the manager has announced his intention, but we cannot leave the hospital without leadership until another manager is found.
We need to find a solution to continue operating at St. Pantelimon Hospital.
Whoever is guilty must pay. What happened seems absolutely incredible, if it did happen, because we are talking about an ongoing criminal investigation, not a court decision.
(...) When we talk about a medical profession, I believe we should talk to those who practice it. Because they are the ones who can give us explanations. I am a microbiologist, and I cannot comment on what happens in intensive care," stated Rafila.
"We Are the Emergency Hospital with the Lowest Patient Fee"
Representatives of St. Pantelimon Hospital claim that the medical unit is underfunded. We are the emergency hospital in Bucharest with the lowest patient fee, which means "malfunctioning operation."
The message was conveyed on Thursday on the hospital's Facebook page.
"This means 'malfunctioning operation.' We are the emergency hospital in Bucharest with the lowest patient fee (𝟏.𝟖𝟓𝟒 𝐥𝐞𝐢), even though we serve two heavy sectors of Bucharest (sectors 2 and 3), we have the most complex and difficult cases and a percentage of 89% emergencies (severe cases).
The only hospital with a fee below 2,000 lei per patient, lower than hospitals of the same category. The fee has increased by only 16% since 2019!" stated the hospital representatives in their message.
The Accusation of Qualified Murder
Two ICU specialist doctors and a nurse were detained for 24 hours on Wednesday in the case of suspicious deaths from spring at "St. Pantelimon" Hospital in Bucharest.
The two female doctors are accused of attempted murder and qualified murder, while the nurse is accused of perjury.
This refers to a criminal case opened in April, after 17 patients admitted to intensive care died in just four days, and a hospital employee reported that patients received reduced doses of noradrenaline.