4 Romanian hospitals unfit for transplants, minister says

BUCHAREST, Romania – Romania’s health minister says there are irregularities at four hospitals where transplants are carried out that could endanger patients’ health.

Vlad Voiculescu said Wednesday that hospitals authorized to harvest organs for transplants in four cities “don’t fulfil the minimum necessary criteria to harvest organs.”

He made the announcement after checks were carried out at the National Transplant Agency and at the hospitals. He added there were suspicions about spending of public money at the facilities.

Voiculescu said there would be more checks at the hospitals. He said that “we want to do lung transplants, but if we have doubts about patient safety we won’t do it.”

Radu Deac, director of the National Transplant Agency, said that the hospitals checked lacked equipment that could determine whether a patient was brain dead.