ICU doctors at Bucharest hospital on strike to protest detention of doctors suspected of murder

ICU doctors at the St. Pantelimon Hospital in Bucharest decided on Thursday, August 8, to go on strike in protest against the detention of two female doctors by prosecutors.

Two doctors, specialists in Anesthesiology and Intensive Care, were detained the day before for murder in a case involving suspicious deaths in the ICU. A nurse was also detained in the case, accused of false testimony.

Update: The doctors decided on the afternoon of August 8 to give up on the strike and carry on with their duties.

The president of the Romanian Society of Anesthesia and Intensive Care, Dr. Șerban Bubenek, said the prosecutors handling the St. Pantelimon case were misinterpreting the actions of the two doctors now accused of murder. “Our two colleagues are young people, holders of the European diploma in anesthesia, among the 200 Romanians whose specialization is recognized at the European level. How many other colleagues can say this?" he stated, cited by Digi24.

Despite initially threatening to resign from on-call duties and then from the hospital itself, the anesthesiologists at the hospital decided to continue their work. “Whoever is guilty should pay if proven. But we are people who perform our work correctly. This is what we do, we save people. For now, we continue with on-call duties and will see how severe the pressure will be because it is impossible to work under such conditions. We are not blackmailing anyone,” the head of the ICU department at Pantelimon Hospital, Florina Pompilian, told News.ro.

Ten interventions have been postponed as the strike was announced. "The anesthesiology and intensive care doctors in the hospital have decided to go on a spontaneous strike and not provide anesthesia to chronic or scheduled patients. They are, of course, ensuring emergencies, on-call duties, and the care of patients currently in therapy. At the first hour, ten interventions were postponed. They said they are preparing a document in which all of them will sign their resignation from the on-call and hospital contracts," the manager of St. Pantelimon Hospital Bogdan Socea said, cited by ProTV.

Health minister Alexandru Rafila requested the hospital manager's resignation on Wednesday, August 7, after the Prosecutor's Office announced that it was conducting searches at the St. Pantelimon Hospital.