Eighty percent of healthcare managers, unsatisfactory; changes in performance criteria to be fast-tracked

Health Minister Sorina Pintea reiterated on Monday that 80 percent of the managers in the Romanian healthcare system have no place there, adding that implementing changes in performance indicators for managers will be sped up. 

"I have said that there is a staff shortage, I gave you some examples yesterday: in 2016 there were 165,000 employees in the public healthcare system, today there are 185,000 in the public system. So, the shortage has narrowed but the way of organising the medical activities is the province of the management boards. As I have said many times, 80 percent of the existing managers have no place in the healthcare system. We blame the system, but we are the system. It is precisely what I was saying about the Socola [psychiatric hospital]: a way of organising that, in our opinion, is unsatisfactory. Much has been done over the last two years because we had access to all the documents, but not enough. And we were too used to it works that way. What happened here is the result of many years of activity, we are not talking about the last years, because an idea has been inculcated that it works that way, we can do this, we can do that, until it happened. Do not tell me nobody knew what was in the job description, what was written there. It is the duty of the chief nurse to conduct regular training in what is in the job description, procedures, and protocols. Do you think anything has been done? Never," Pintea said at the Sapoca Psychiatric Hospital asked if in her opinion the healthcare system is also facing a staff shortage. 

The minister added that the process of implementing the changes in the performance indicators for managers of healthcare facilities will be sped up. 

"We will hasten the implementation of the changes in the performance indicators for managers and we will change some of the tasks of the administration boards, because at this moment, from my point of view, things do not work," said Pintea.