Palliative Care in Romania

Abstract

HOSPICE Casa Sperantei has been pioneering palliative care development in Romania since 1992. The have developed specialist palliative care services in home-based settings, inpatient units, day care centers, and as hospital support teams. They have provided national and international education programs for professionals in the palliative care field, as well as promoting palliative care integration in the health care system. Legislative improvements were adopted, including funding mechanisms for the reimbursement of palliative care services through the health insurance funds, review of opioid policy, and quality standards of care. By the end of 2015, Romania had 115 specialist palliative care services (78 palliative care inpatient units, 24 home-based palliative care services, five outpatient palliative care clinics, four day care centers, and four hospital support teams). A palliative care subspecialty for doctors was recognized as early as 2000, and a multidisciplinary master's degree program has been available at Transilvania University since 2010, when the first palliative care academic position was established. Nursing education includes mandatory palliative care modules in nursing schools. For coordinated development of palliative care at the national level, a national strategy was proposed defining three levels of palliative care provision, local, district, and national. The implementation of the palliative care strategy is partially funded through a World Bank loan.

When Is a Person With Dementia in Need of Palliative Care? Opinions of Healthcare Professionals and University Students From Three South East European Countries

“…Nevertheless, the Health Law 95/2006 (still functioning today) didn't include references to the palliative care, and the services for these patients were slowly settled as for chronic ill patients or with cancer (Enache et al 2013). The updates for the mentioned Health Law and some Government orders corrected the situation to this day; the legislative improvements included the funding mechanisms for the reimbursement of palliative care services through the health insurance funds, the review of opioid policy, and the quality standards of care (Mosoiu et al 2017).…”

The impact of Balint work on alexithymia, perceived stress, perceived social support and burnout among physicians working in palliative care: a longitudinal study

“…Moreover, these changes are aggravated by physicians' unawareness and/or lack of action regarding their own burnout risk, possibly causing a permanent alteration in the nature of the therapeutic relationship [29]. In the case of Romanian physicians, attentiveness to these risks has increased only recently (as palliative care is quite a new specialty); however, the currently high rate of development in this field, with 115 PC services organized nationally in 2018 [30], ensures a steady preoccupation with this topic in the upcoming years.…”

Palliative Care in Romania and Lithuania- Between the Necessity of Terminal Patient Assistance and the Rigors of Resource Allocation

“…Since 2012 more centers were opened. A paper published in 2018 (Mosoiu, Mitrea, & Dumitrescu, 2018) noted the existence of 78 palliative care inpatient units, 24 palliative care home care services, 5 palliative care outpatient services , 4 palliative care day centers and 4 palliative care mobile hospital teams.…”