The maternity ward at Criuleni District Hospital is standing idle. The only neonatologist resigned in July 2026. By 18 October, no one had taken the post. TVR Moldova: the rooms and the delivery suite, empty. Planned births, in Chișinău. Emergencies, on site, if dilation is complete or the road to the capital is not safe. That is a temporary suspension. It is not the demolition of the hospital. It is not a judgment on the doctor who left.

Pavel Chior, deputy medical director: without a neonatologist, obstetrics cannot run at full volume and in safety. They searched, with the ministry. Candidates, for unclear reasons, refused. Repairs in 2019, good conditions, the administration says. Young specialists, uninterested. Mihaela Botnari-Guțu, head of obstetrics: many patients wanted to give birth at home, in Criuleni. Transferred. Unhappy. Dubăsari, on the same road to Chișinău.

It is not only one post. Chior: a cardiologist, a neurologist, internists, another paediatrician. The shortage, in every district, especially of the young. A local woman, to TVR: in summer, an appointment, no doctor. The young, abroad. Pay, not as it should be. That is talk from town. It is not a payroll.

Alexandru Gasnaș, the health minister: 107 neonatologists. 90 in Chișinău, 17 in the districts. The absolute number, he says, exists. The distribution does not. He is not looking to close district services. One doctor is not a service. A team is. In the community, pregnancy monitoring stays, close by, to see the risks in time. The birth, where there is a team. In the last five years, TVR: 13 level-I perinatal centres, physiological births, stopped for lack of staff and of children born.

Moldova Invest describes the same kind of gap at Nisporeni: retirement, over 70, women sent to Ungheni or to the Mother and Child Institute. Another district, the same hole. The figures there (114 neonatologists) do not match the minister’s 107. They are not merged here. What remains is two hospitals without the person after the birth.

Until a contract, what remains is an empty room and Chișinău. After a contract, what remains is whether 17 people can hold the districts. Between them, a resignation in July and a woman in labour who does not want the road to the capital.

Image: Vladikh, Criuleni town hall, 31 July 2025, CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The photograph is of the town hall, not the maternity wards.

Sources consulted: Without a neonatologist, the Criuleni maternity has suspended activity — TVR Moldova; The neonatologist shortage puts pressure on Moldova’s district hospitals — Moldova Invest.