Romanian prosecutors from the Anticorruption Department DNA arrested a director within the Health Ministry for 24 hours, for taking bribes. They charged her with six counts of bribery and asked the court to issue a 30-day arrest warrant.

Mihaela Ela Udrea, director of the Drug Policy and Medical Devices Department within the Ministry of Health, allegedly received money and cosmetics as bribes, between April and August this year. In return, Udrea was supposed to approve licenses for new pharmaceutical outlets. She received the bribes in her office, according to a DNA statement.

The Romanian prosecutors organized a flagrant on Thursday, August 27, and found the director with RON 2,000. While searching Udrea’s office, the prosecutors also found several envelopes with some RON 4,000, and several cosmetic products.

Prosecutors will ask for Udrea Mihaela’s preventive arrest on August 28.

Things seem to not be going well in Romania’s health sector, as the manager of the Ploiesti County Hospital was also placed under preventive arrest earlier this week, for a period of 30 days, for taking bribes.

In July this year, the DNA also started an investigation on several doctors who received benefits from pharmaceutical companies to prescribe certain oncologic drugs to their patients.

There had been a lot of talks lately about the state of Romania's public health system, as many doctors have left the state hospitals to work abroad, due to the low salaries. The Government decided this week to increase wages in the public health system by 25%, starting October 2015. The Government also planned to legalize patients' gifts to doctors.

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Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com