The installation of panic buttons at every hospital bed and the placement of security cameras in all Intensive Care Units (ICUs) and Emergency Rooms were rejected on Monday by the Senate Health Committee.The proposals were initiated in a legislative project submitted by USR following the incident at Pantelimon Hospital.The Senate is the first chamber to be addressed..
The legislative project submitted in August mandates hospitals to install panic buttons at all patient beds ‘in an accessible location for the patient’ and to set up cameras in ICUs and Emergency Rooms (ER and CPU).
The USR project outlines the installation of video cameras to ensure ‘continuous monitoring of medical activities, without compromising patient privacy.’ According to the proposal, video recordings would be stored for a minimum of 30 days, exclusively for monitoring the quality of medical practices, investigating potential incidents, or ensuring the safety of patients and medical staff.
The initiative also stipulates that all public and private hospitals must ‘install and maintain in working order’ panic buttons in each patient room.These buttons should be placed ‘in an accessible location for patients,’ and their purpose is to allow ‘the rapid reporting of a medical emergency or an imminent danger to hospital medical and security staff.’.
The project also proposes penalties for hospitals that fail to comply with the law, should these amendments pass through Parliament: fines ranging from 50,000 to 200,000 lei.
‘The PSD-PNL coalition operates perfectly when ignoring patient safety.The USR initiative to equip hospital rooms with panic buttons was rejected by the Senate Health Committee.PSD and PNL senators in the Romanian Senate Health Committee voted together to dismiss the USR initiative regarding the installation of surveillance cameras and panic buttons in hospitals, ignoring the safety of patients and healthcare staff,’ USR announced in a press release.
USR believes that the proposed measures ‘are essential for increasing safety and transparency in the Romanian medical system, aimed at protecting patients and ensuring optimal working conditions for medical staff.The implementation of such measures would contribute to greater transparency and protect medical staff from unfounded accusations.’.
‘Surveillance cameras in sensitive areas like ICUs, ERs, and operating rooms would have allowed for continuous monitoring of events in these areas, which would discourage unethical practices and provide evidence in cases of potential litigations.We would avoid embarrassing situations where patients film nurses, nurses secretly film doctors, and prosecutors, instead of accessing objective evidence, resort to public shaming with images given to television networks,’ stated Emanuel Ungureanu, a USR deputy and one of the initiators of the legislative project.
Emanuel Ungureanu argues that installing panic buttons in hospital rooms would provide patients with a quick alert mechanism in case of emergencies: ‘Hospitals need to have alert buttons, but some do and some do not.On the floor where Alexandra died, at the Botoșani Maternity Hospital, that button did not exist.A requirement exists, but the accreditation conditions are something entirely different.Patient safety and life should never be placed second, and hospital accreditation should not be superficial; every building, every floor, every facility should be checked to ensure they match what is stipulated in the law and the accreditation file.’.
USR believes that the rejection of this initiative ‘demonstrates that PSD and PNL ignore the real needs of the healthcare system.At a time when the health crisis is profoundly felt and patient trust in medical institutions is declining, such measures would have represented a step in the right direction.’.
