Diluted disinfectants crisis in Romania since 2016 characterized a critical time in the evolution of the national health system, arose as a result of researching nonconformities in relation to legal rules, parameters of products disinfectants purchased and used in medical institutions in Romania.
Contents
In the spring of 2016, the press revealed that the Romanian health system were widely used disinfectants diluted bought from Hexi Pharma, which had been involved in a similar scandal back in 2006.
Background and preliminary
After some of the victims of Colectiv nightclub fire died in nosocomial infections, the subject came to the attention of the press. Although their incidence was reported to be low and declining, it was already known that those reports were false, and actual results were anything artificially increased by admissions unnecessary of people who were suffering from diseases that require hospitalization.
However, there were, for years, and indications that some disinfectants used in hospitals do not meet the standards required. Thus, the activity report of the Directorate of Public Health Bucharest recorded receiving an address from the Public Health Department Arad, showing that found nonconforming product Polyiodine Scrub produced by Hexi Pharma. Thor, another product Hexi Pharma had been tested in France in laboratories the competing ANIOS which found a different recipe than shown and dilution significant, but the information was not at the time. The same disinfectant, Thor, had been identified since 2006 as responsible for infecting newborns in a maternity hospital in Argeș County. The result was a series of criminal complaints on behalf of the manufacturer Farma University, which has since changed its name in Hexi Pharma.
Reactions
On May 6, 2016, around five hundred people protested in Bucharest, amid a severe sub financing of the health system in a country where thousands of Romanian specialists emigrate annually, and bribery and informal payments are practices endemic in hospitals nationwide.
On May 8, 2016, amid the scandal, Health Minister Patriciu Achimaș-Cadariu resigned. Prime Minister Dacian Cioloș assured the interim until the appointment of his successor, Vlad Voiculescu, on May 20, 2016.