Public health services in Romania in terms of European policies

The article presents several of the most serious problems concerning public health care in Romania, as seen from the perspective of some similar public policies and practices in the European space. For more than two decades the public health system of Romania has undergone a so-called reform process with the main result of the continuous deterioration of both the labour conditions within the system and the quality of the provided services. This situation was created by the severe under-financing over the long term of the reform process; the continuous decreasing of the territorial units for medical services distribution; the exodus over the borders of Romanian physicians in their search for better work conditions; and, as a consequence, the limitation of the population’s access to the public health assistance and medication. The picture of the current situation inside some nations within the European Community that have recently applied reforms in the medical area strongly contrasts with the situation within Romania. Both through adopted policies and the actual medical practices that are carried on inside Romania, Romania seems deeply dissociated from all that takes place in the European Union, in the domain of medical service delivery development. Therefore, it is no wonder that for two decades the Romanian public health system is constantly situated at the end of the rankings concerning the performance of medical services, and at the beginning of those rankings regarding the incidence of morbidity and mortality within the European Community. The article also presents the authors` vision concerning privatisation of some public medical services, the efficiency of the services delivered in Romanian hospitals, the stage of the reform and the adoption of the new health law. Within this context, there are also presented some Romanian facts and managerial practices that have kept the system in a state of dysfunction and inefficiency for a long time.