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The Health Ministry is working to change mentalities among hospital staff and to ensure the organizational and professional framework allowing the identification and reporting of healthcare-associated infections, Minister Alexandru Rafila told a press conference on Monday, stating that reporting these infections is highly encouraged, for the real state of play to be known.
"The managers of several hospitals under the Health Ministry's authority have been evaluated - we do not encourage whatsoever hiding these infections. On the contrary, we want to know the real situation. There are managers who perform very well and report a 5 - 6 percent share of infections. There are no sanctions for reporting these infections in their performance indicators. We are not considering sanctions. There are already regulations in place regarding the failure to report communicable diseases in general. But communicable diseases include healthcare-associated infections. The regulations provide for progressive pecuniary sanctions which apply to healthcare staff who do not report such infections," Rafila explained.
He announced that a survey will be soon conducted on healthcare-associated infections.
"The latest survey was in 2017 and the next one will be done this year or at the beginning of next year. (...) The real percentage was 5.9. (...) We are about to conduct a new survey to look at the situation and see what administrative measures the Health Ministry has taken in the last six months, so that we can progress and get a more accurate picture. (...) The Health Ministry has a regulatory, coordination and administration role," Rafila showed, referencing also the minister's order that requires inpatient hospitals to have a microbiology laboratory or a microbiology department. AGERPRES
