Carmen Uscatu, Founding Member, President at Give Life NGO, shared a post on LinkedIn:
“Bureaucracy is stifling cancer care in Europe. How is it in Romania? Better, worse, the same?
In 2001, The Lancet spoke about lack of access to innovative treatments. Back then, Europe discussed innovation. It is now 2026 and, in Romania, in a hospital that Dăruiește Viață(Give Life) built for the future—we discuss basics: staff. Without nurses and doctors, we can’t treat children with cancer.
Positions in the public health system have been blocked for more than a year. At Spitalul Marie Curie, since our department opened in April 2024, the number of oncological patients tripled, yet we work with the same number of nurses and doctors.
Every Wednesday, together with the oncologist team, I meet for two hours to review everything we need to improve care: protocols and SOPs, European projects, fellowships and observerships at the Prinses Máxima Centrum voor kinderoncologie, clinical trials, digitization, conferences.
Where we still didn’t find a solution? The number of nurses and clinicians. We can’t hire because positions are frozen.
This is urgent because we want to open this year the stem cell transplant unit, so Marie Curie Hospital can become a comprehensive childhood cancer center in Romania, with all specialties in one place. One oncologist spent a year at Bambino Gesù and came back to change the world; another is now six months at Prinses Máxima Centrum voor kinderoncologie. We have to train nurses. But to train them, we first need to hire them.
Here’s the reality: we sent the Stem Cell Transplant Unit structure for approval to the Minister of Health, Alexandru Rogobete more than 9 months ago: approval of the number of nurses and doctors. We talked with the minister in September 2025; he told us the solution is in the pencil of the Minister of Finance, with Government approval. The doctors left and still leave and always came back.
The paper left the hospital and never came back with an answer. No answer on the SCTU. No answer on unfreezing nursing positions—from the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Finance, or the Government of Romania.
Tomorrow we celebrate two years since opening. We have good news and better services than two years ago. But there is still a lot to do. Quick. Urgent. Now. Today. Yesterday.
To be clear: without the support of the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Finance, and the Government of Romania, we can’t treat children with cancer in Romania at the same standard as Europe does. And we want to do this. And we will do it. Because it is our mission!”
Other articles about Carmen Uscatu on OncoDaily.