Health Minister Nelu Tataru said today that five years after the Colectiv Club deadly fire, "things in the severe burn care system have changed, but much too slowly."

"Today there are five years since the Colectiv tragedy. Every year at this time, our thoughts turn to the young people who lost their lives in that terrible accident, to their grieving families, but also to those who survived. Five years on, things in the severe burn care system have changed, but much too slowly. The law was changed so as to reduce and optimize the times for the transfer abroad of the people with severe burns who cannot be taken in by the health facilities in the country, and doctors and medical staff were sent for specialization to foreign clinics. Under a World Bank program, 6 hospital wards in the country received the necessary medical equipment worth over 33 million euros," Tataru said in a message sent on the 5th commemoration of the Colectiv Club tragedy.

He mentioned that Romania is still at the stage where the infrastructure for the treatment of the severe burn patient is being adjusted.

"We still have just 23 beds for these patients and we are compelled to seek help from clinics abroad when our treatment capacity is exceeded. We still lack the exercise of transparently reporting and acknowledging in-hospital infections and we are still lacking a dedicated tissue and skin bank," Tataru said.

He reminded that the construction of three new large multifunctional centers for severe burn patients were supposed to start this year with funds ensured under a joint program with the World Bank, but that he found all the projects very much delayed.

"We managed to obtain on August 18, 2020 the building permit for the Severe Burn Center in Timisoara, which is also the most advanced project, and we are in the final preparation stage with the tender documents for the execution of the building. The tender will be launched in November. As a matter of fact, we estimate that in six months we will have all three construction tenders started," the HealthMin said.

According to Tataru, the three new multifunctional centers for severe burn victims that will be built in Timisoara, Targu Mures and Bucharest (the 'Grigore Alexandrescu' Emergency Clinical Hospital for Children) will include, in addition to severe burn wards, Anaesthesia & Intensive Care wards, operating theaters and emergency wards or connection to existing emergency wards.

"This is an investment of over 192 million euros following which 188 beds for severe burn patients, 56 surgery rooms and several state-of-the-art facilities will be rendered operational. I have been a Health Minister for 8 months now, and my term coincided with the biggest global health challenge of the last century, but I consider that we owe the society and the young people from Colectiv speeding up the measures for the optimal treatment in Romania of severe burn patients," said Tataru, who also welcomed the initiative - the Ministry of Health also contributed to - of providing the Colectiv fire survivors with lifelong subsidized treatment.

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Several hundred people, mostly youth, this evening formed a roughly 1.6-km-long human chain between the Bucharest Court of Appeal and the former Colectiv club, in memory of the victims of the deadly fire that ravaged the place five years ago.

Carrying candles in tribute to the over 60 fire victims, the participants lined themselves some 4 metres apart on the route Splaiul Unirii, Unirii Square, Bucur Street.

''Five years after #colectiv, a chain of incompetence and corruption is still killing every day in Romania. Five years after #colectiv, a chain of arrogance and imposture still inflicts illness on us instead of healing us in hospitals. Five years after #colectiv, a chain of indifference and irresponsibility continues injustice instead of punishing the guilty in court. Five years after #colectiv, we demand justice! Spaced 4 meters apart, we will form a chain of memory between the Bucharest Court of Appeal and the Colectiv club,'' was the Facebook message whereby the organizers announced the event. AGERPRES (RO - authors: Roberto Stan, Mihai Stoica, editors: Mihai Simionescu, Georgiana Tanasescu; EN - editor: Simona Klodnischi)