Prof. Claudia Gherman, manager of the Cluj-Napoca County Emergency Clinical Hospital, told Medika TV that the shortage of medical staff is real both in her hospital and nationwide. Her warning comes against a staffing plan that has not kept pace with the workload.

According to the manager, the hospital still runs on an old establishment: the normative figure was 1,204 posts and there are now 1,555, without a matching update of the approved scheme. Gherman said health staffing tables should be improved and widened, not merely kept on paper.

From 2022 to 2025, activity in some sectors rose by about 40%, while the number of doctors grew only 5% and nursing staff 3%. The result, on her figures, is roughly a 20% higher load per doctor.

On-call lines across all specialties are still covered, Gherman said, but the effort is constant. The hospital runs 24/7, and without enough staff those posts will become harder to fill.

The human-resources theme also surfaced around recent investment: at the inauguration of the Neurosurgery Centre, the same leadership stressed that multimillion-euro technology stays idle without doctors and nurses. Making new wings work therefore depends on hires, not only buildings and machines.

In earlier remarks, Gherman also warned about an ageing workforce and the risk of closing wards if replacements are missing. The 9 November message repeats the same logic: the staffing gap is not a bureaucratic detail, but a direct limit on admissions and continuous care.

In short, the SCJU Cluj manager wants a national recognition of the staff shortage and updated schemes, on a backdrop where clinical volume has grown far faster than the headcount of doctors and nurses.

Source consulted: Cluj County Hospital manager Claudia Gherman: Staffing need is real here too — News.ro