Romanian Family Doctors Reject Healthcare Contract, Threaten Lawsuit Against Govt

The doctors assembled Saturday in a conference, hosted by the National Family Medicine Society (SNMF) and the National Federation of Family Medicine Employers (FNPMF), to discuss the healthcare system's problems and the steps they will take against this legislation's "illegalities."

Family doctor representatives said the frame-contract "ignores the principle whereby strengthening the base improves the entire system," cuts off the freedom of medical practitioners, affects the rights of patients and attempts to bury doctors working in primary care under bureaucracy, promoting division and deprofessionalization.

The doctors have agreed to practice in the private sector or abroad, should the government force them to sign the contract. They also threaten to take the state to court over the acts which breach the law and the fundamental rights of patients and doctors, and notify the European Union about "serious breaches of European directives."

Their complaints are with the acts concerning informatization, requiring doctors to perform services (editing national health insurance cards) unrelated to their professional training or contract. The doctors also protest against the government's plan to "introduce forced labor by requiring the staffing of permanent assistance units, without decent financing and in the absence of legal conditions for the operation of such units." Furthermore, imposing reference ceilings on medical prescriptions entails a selection of those patients who consume the fewest resources, turning doctors into "cerberi," they said.

The doctors called on the prime minister to intervene and solve the crisis in the healthcare system, and announced they will request an investigation into the way the Health Ministry and National Health Insurance House have managed public money.

They will also ask patients for support in gathering signatures on "their dissatisfaction with the lack of transparency in the management of their money."

The doctors plan to file requests for certificates of conformity, allowing them to leave the country en masse.

SNMF president Rodica Tanasescu said the budgets of family doctor practices are lower every year, having been reduced by 35% from 2008 to 2009, by 10% from 2009 to 2010 and by almost 10% since last year.

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