Romanian Pensioners Queued All Night For Spa Tickets

The people there say they spent all night in front of the institution, to be sure they would get tickets to seaside or mountain resorts. Although the pensioners drew up lists with their names in order of arrival, the institution said it will not take them into account.

“According to procedures, we accept the requests for treatment for the year 2009 as of the first working day of December. Each person must express three options for three different months, so as to have the tickets distributed countrywide after budgets are approved,” said the head of the Pensions House Dolj, Ileana Ciutan.

Vasile Dolean, the head of the Pension House in Cluj, said Tuesday he does not understand the pensioners’ attitude, to cram in like sardines to file ticket requests on the first day of submission.

“We have had for this year 9,000 tickets to spa resorts. We had talks with pensioners’ associations and they know they can submit requests anytime as of Tuesday (…). We won’t have a higher number of tickets for spa resorts for next year,” Dolean said.

Pensioners standing in line mostly request treatment tickets in spa resorts in Covasna, Tusnad and Baile Felix (central Romania), and Herculane (southwestern Romania).