Romania creates new basic health package to include preventive doctor consults and free up hospitals

A new basic medical services package in Romania will include a preventive consultation made by the family doctor for asymptomatic individuals aged between 18 and 39. Moreover, patients with a “normal risk” of having a new or acute health problem will benefit from maximum two examinations in a period of three months. The final form of the basic package was presented by the Romanian Minister of Health Eugen Nicolaescu. He added that the project “especially” targets the transition from hospital to pre-hospital care, as well as prevention and early detection of health problems, in order to “unload” hospitals of unjustified services, reports local news agency Mediafax. The basic package needed a written agreement from the European Commission. “We have this written agreement and from this moment we could start all legal procedures to enforce it,” said the Romanian minister. “Given the limited resources, the health system can’t support itself anymore in the way it currently works, focused on hospitals that make unnecessary or fictitious admissions and are the largest consumers of resources,” according to the project’s explanatory note. The new package also introduces ambulatory specialized multidisciplinary examinations for patients with complex health problems, so they can benefit from health evaluation from several teams of specialist. Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com