PNL leader Ilie Bolojan said Friday in Buzău that a large share of Romania’s hospitals spend almost all their money on salaries, leaving too little for medicines, treatments, tests and cleaning.

“This year we will close health spending at 90 billion. We have some 370 hospitals, of which about 100 have staff costs above 85%, some at 95% of total spending. What is left for the rest? Nothing. That means the hospital is not for patients, but for employees,” the liberal leader said, according to News.ro.

Speaking to PNL representatives in Buzău, Bolojan framed the remarks as a warning about budget pressure and how the structure of hospital costs affects patient care. The comments land amid broader debate over the hospital network and funding from the health insurance houses.

At the same meeting he criticised early retirement and highlighted a demographic imbalance: a generation now leaving work numbers about 350,000 people, while only about 150,000 children were born in Romania last year.

“Someone still has to pay for our pensions. It is not about collecting votes, but about thinking clearly what happens in five years. Otherwise we sell our children’s future,” Bolojan added on the sustainability of the pension system.

The statements do not announce an immediate legislative measure; they are a political diagnosis of health spending. Any reform of the hospital network or hiring rules would need analysis from the Health Ministry and the National Health Insurance House, plus broader political agreement.

Image: Ilie Bolojan (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0).

Sources consulted: Bolojan says many hospitals spend almost all their money on salaries — News.ro.