Romanian interim president approves bill allowing patients to make donations to hospitals

Romanian interim president Ilie Bolojan promulgated the law that allows patients to express their gratitude towards doctors through donations made to the medical institution on Tuesday, April 9.

According to this law, patients can make donations to the hospitals where they were treated, instead of giving gifts to the medical staff, as was often the custom in Romania before and after the 1989 Revolution.

The legislative proposal, initiated by USR, was adopted by the Chamber of Deputies, the decision-making body, on March 26, with 283 votes “for” and 20 abstentions, according to Digi24.

The bill eliminates the possibility for patients to offer additional payments and donations to the employees of healthcare institutions where they were treated, allowing them to donate to the healthcare institutions themselves, and including these donations in the hospital’s revenue and expenditure budget execution report.

The initiators clarified that this law does not legalize bribes. “We do not wish to completely eliminate the patient’s right to express gratitude. It can be genuine in certain situations, which is why we support that it should be expressed only through donations made to the medical institution where the patient was treated, not to doctors or other employees of healthcare centers,” the explanatory statement of the bill further specifies.

(Photo source: presidency.ro)