Romanian authorities shut down several nursing homes after uncovering irregularities

Romania’s National Agency for Social Payments and Inspection conducted inspections at 446 social services centers on Monday, July 10, closing four of them and suspending the activity of 22 others.

Romanian prime minister Marcel Ciolacu ordered inspections for all nursing homes in Romania after nearly 100 elderly people were rescued by police and prosecutors during raids on three nursing homes in Ilfov county, close to Bucharest. The elderly, many of them disabled, were beaten, starved, and subjected to forced labor in the three centers.

Several nursing homes in the counties of Constanţa, Giurgiu, and Mureş were closed. One social services center in Arad, ten in Bucharest, one in Constanţa, seven in Giurgiu, two in Ilfov, and one in Timiş county were suspended from functioning, according to Economedia.ro.

Inspectors found dozens of elderly people being fed expired food and housed in indescribable filth at a senior center in Timișoara, according to Digi24. The facility has been closed, and the patients have been relocated to other nursing homes in the city.

In Gorj, elderly residents of a facility reported that they were being abused. Another nursing home in the county was closed for operating without authorization for several months. A nursing home in Mureș was closed due to hygiene issues and a medical office which was not connected to running water.

The initial inspections conducted on Monday by the four teams checking nursing homes in Argeș county revealed that some of the facilities caring for vulnerable individuals served expired food, had outdated sanitary items, and were covered in mold.

Additionally, in Bucharest, the leadership of the General Directorate for Social Assistance and Child Protection (DGASPC) District 4 has been dismissed due to problems found at one of the locations where six minors were accommodated. Inspectors found deteriorated interior walls, furniture, and sanitary equipment at the center. The location has already been closed, and the minors have been relocated to other centers. Two other social centers were closed in District 1 and two in District 6.

In a first reaction on Tuesday, July 11, Romanian president Klaus Iohannis said before a NATO summit that what happened in the "horrific nursing homes" is a "national shame." He further stated that evil must be cut off at its roots.