The "vicious circle” of the healthcare system: Minister Alexandru Rogobete promises a paradigm shift in hospitals

The Romanian healthcare system is at a turning point, said Health Minister Alexandru Rogobete at the end of the National Residency Competition. The minister spoke about the years in which hospitals operated in a "vicious circle”: the lack of modern equipment led to the exodus of doctors, and the absence of doctors justified, in turn, the lack of investment in technology. Rogobete explained that, for years, hospitals did not purchase high-performance equipment on the grounds that there was not enough staff to use it. This inverse logic - "we do not buy equipment because we have no one to use it” - has hindered the modernization of the system and has led many young doctors to go abroad. "I think we have been in a vicious circle for years. We were not purchasing high-performance equipment because we did not have doctors," the minister said. According to Rogobete, the situation has changed: the ministry has started equipping hospital centers with advanced technology, and the effects are visible. One example: the departments equipped with angiographs, essential for emergency interventions in case of stroke, have already attracted young doctors returned from abroad, interested in the possibility of working with modern equipment and performing cutting-edge procedures. The minister insisted that the modernized infrastructure is worth nothing without sufficient and motivated medical personnel. "These renovated walls and this modern equipment, however, without doctors, without nurses, without nurses... are just empty walls," he said, emphasizing that material investments must be doubled by an investment in people. In front of the future residents, Rogobete made an appeal for professional solidarity: to experienced doctors - to support those at the beginning of their journey; to young doctors - not to forget that their job "is about doing good”. In the minister's vision, the moment of entering the Residency should represent more than an exam: it should be the beginning of a career in a system that is being rebuilt. "A young person, when he enters a hospital, wants to do, wants to show that he knows, wants to become better and better. (...) I encourage my colleagues in the system to let them develop”, Rogobete also said. The Ministry of Health announces historic investments: new hospitals under construction, rehabilitation of existing ones, equipping university centers with state-of-the-art equipment. There will also be a change in philosophy: equipment is purchased before the staff is fully trained, in order to attract and motivate doctors, not the other way around. Minister Rogobete's statements mark a new way of looking at the healthcare system: investment in technology is no longer conditioned by personnel, but becomes the engine through which Romanian medicine tries to regain its professionals. A vicious circle can turn into a virtuous circle - if hospitals are modernized, doctors will have reasons to stay and build a different kind of healthcare system.