Bucharest City Hall funds additional health, social programs

The Bucharest General Council (CGMB) has approved several additional programs offering funding for the training of doctors, the establishment of a dental clinic, and the purchase of apartments where residents of high seismic risk buildings could relocate, among others. As such, 100 doctors will receive financial support for professional training as part of the program “Doctors for Bucharest.” The program targets doctors who are employed by the Bucharest Administration of Hospitals and Medical Services (ASSMB) and who reside in the capital. It has a budget of over RON 1 million (EUR 216,416) in 2019. Each doctor can receive RON 10,000 (EUR 2,146) to undergo training of at least one week in clinics in Europe, US, and Israel. A total of 1,259 doctors, not employed for on-call duty, work in the hospitals administered by ASSMB. Of these, some 50% are younger than 45. At the same time, the Bucharest City Hall will purchase 177 apartments to offer for free to doctors. The City Hall is expected to spend almost EUR 20 million on this, Profit.ro reported. Last month, the same project was rejected by CGMB. These apartments are a first batch from the 600 mayor Gabriela Firea said would be purchased for the doctors working in Bucharest. The apartments will be purchased from Cubic Residence SRL (37 two-room apartments and 10 three-room apartments), from Iridex Group Import Export (5 one-room apartments, 18 two-room apartments, and 20 three-room apartments), from Impact Developer & Contractor (70 three-room apartments), and from Ipsilanti Invest (1 one-room apartment and 16 three-room apartments). A metropolitan dental clinic The CGMB also decided that a Metropolitan Dental Clinic will be established in Bucharest. The clinic will have various specialized departments, an OR, and a dental technique lab. The mayor argued that the clinic is needed since 95% of the dental health services are currently offered by private operators and dentists cannot offer free basic services for more than 5 people per month. Next, ASSMB is to identify and purchase a building for the clinic. Second stage of program for infertile couples The program “A chance for infertile couples” was expanded to encompass 2,000 beneficiaries more. The first stage of the program had a success rate of 70% as 112 pregnancies have been confirmed out of the 159 medical procedures that took place, the mayor said. As was the case with the first phase of the program, the beneficiaries will receive vouchers worth RON 4,600 (around EUR 987) for drugs and RON 9,200 (EUR 1,974) for the medical procedures.