Bucharest to offer financial aid for health issues, rewards for top students

The Bucharest General Council (CGMB) has approved in its meeting this week a series of projects granting financial help to the capital’s residents for a variety of issues. These range from medical problems to encouraging school performance. They add to the list of financial incentives the City Hall is offering to young people who get married or to the schemes to support families that want to have children. Last year, the Bucharest City Hall also introduced a financial stimulus of RON 2,500 (EUR 537) for each baby born in the city. The recently approved projects are: Genetic testing for breast cancer patients The City Hall will grant vouchers worth RON 17,000 (EUR 3,655) each for breast cancer patients in Bucharest to undergo genetic testing. The program of the genetic testing will be rolled out by the Bucharest Administration of Hospitals and Medical Services (ASSMB), between September 2018 and December 2019. The program has a budget of RON 17 million (EUR 3.6 million) and covers 1,000 patients. This year, 300 patients will be tested, and the remaining 700 next year. The program targets hormone-receptor positive breast cancer patients in early stages, who have a recommendation from an oncologist to undergo genetic testing. The test will offer patients and their doctors additional information on the probability of response to chemotherapy and on the probability of the cancer recurrence within ten years since the diagnosis has been made. Some 700 new breast cancers are diagnosed each year in Bucharest, according to data quoted by the City Hall. The test could add to the life expectancy of patients if it is used to reevaluate treatment options. Fertility preservation for the young diagnosed with cancer The young residents of Bucharest diagnosed with cancer can receive help to preserve their fertility through the Newborn – Oncofertility project. The project has a budget of RON 880,000 (EUR 189,247). It targets women up to 35 years old and men up to 45 years old who wish to preserve their fertility through the cryo-preservation of their oocytes and sperm for a period of five years. The ASSMB will roll out the project at the Prof. Dr. Panait Sîrbu Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital, between November 2018 and October 2020. A total of 138 women and 175 men will take part in the program. To be eligible, they need to be residents of Bucharest or to have a Bucharest residence visa obtained at least six months before the start of the project. They also need to have a doctor’s recommendation for cryo-preservation. The initiators of the project, selected from those submitted in the public call For Bucharest, argued that it can help the reproductive capacity of those diagnosed with cancer, in the wider context of Romania’s decreasing birth rate, the migration phenomenon, and the lack of coherent programs to stimulate births.