Romanian doctor returned from France: “I wonder how many doctors exist in Europe as rich as Dr. Cîrstoiu. Good doctors leave disgusted abroad”

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An orthopedic doctor himself, Dr. Marius Uscatu talks about the existence of “200 – 300 magnates in hospitals, moguls of Romanian medicine who control both the state and the private sector, because they also have private clinics and are, at the same time , and state managers”.

Doctor Cătălin CîrstoiuPhoto: Agerpres

• “This is what I call UMFistan: dynasties, nepotism, clans,” he says and claims that the situation of the former candidate for Bucharest City Hall can bring about a change in the system. But he is skeptical that “UMFistan will allow”.
• “Doctors from France called me, stunned. We are also moving to Romania, they told me, looking at Cîrstoiu’s fortune and situation”.

Orthopedics-traumatology doctor, Uscatu says that between him and Dr. Cîrstoiu, also an orthopedist, the similarities end here. Uscatu tells that he took the path of foreignness at the age of 38, 2 years after becoming a specialist doctor, after he was not given, he claims, any chance in Romania. Not even in a provincial hospital. At only 32 years old, Cătălin Cîrstoiu became, instead, the manager of the most important hospital in the country. At 35, Cîrstoiu was a university professor.

Why a university clinic is the stake

“Romanian doctors, like me, leave the country of shame”, Marius Uscatu explained in a dialogue with HotNews.ro, who claims that “you have no chance of getting into a university clinic if you are not your father’s son “. “Dad” is used generically here, the doctor explains. “Dad” expresses family, but also relationships, the informal system of obligations and rewards.

Photo: Dr. Marius Uscatu / Source: Personal archive

But why is it such a high stakes to get into a university clinic? Because, if you don’t get there, you can hardly do your job in Romania, believes Dr. Marius Uscatu. “Compared to Western countries, where you can work in any hospital in the country under similar conditions, here, the conditions are catastrophically different in a university clinic compared to a provincial town where you have nothing: you have no equipment, you have nothing. And then, the battle is on these positions in the university clinics, which ensure you the opportunity to do your job. Or, for those who want, bread and a knife and a sweet and quiet life”.

What does UMFistan mean?

The doctor says he named this system “UMFistan”. He does not hide his bitter pride in the authorship of the term “UMFistan”, which designates what he calls “university dynasties”. “And the situation has been the same for 17-18 years, since I returned to Romania,” he says.

This is the major problem of medicine in Romania, Marius Uscatu believes: “the clans; the dynasties; nepotism”

“Good doctors from Romania leave disgusted abroad. Some come back after years and years and perform in the private system, others get lost who knows where”, adds the doctor.

In France, doctors have to choose between public and private

Marius Uscatu did his Residency in Romania. Then he went to work for 3 years as a doctor in France. There, the system is very clear, he says: you have a choice, as a doctor, between state and private: “You can’t work in both.”

When he returned to Romania, he chose to work only in the private sector.

In France, however, when you make your choice, you balance the advantages and disadvantages: at the state you have a “warm” salary of 4-5-6,000 euros, only you have to do what the hospital and the system tell you, work as guards, etc. “.

In private, you are “alone, accountable to no one”. Instead, you only earn what you produce. “But you can also earn 10,000 – 20,000 euros per month.”

“In our country, if doctors were allowed to choose, private hospitals would be depopulated”

In France, only the best doctors go privately, says Marius Uscatu.

“In our country, if this problem were to arise, private hospitals would be depopulated.” Marius Uscatu says that, in Romania, almost no one would dare to stay 100% in private, where “you have no protection, no one covers you, the boss, the teacher, the director, etc., as happens in hospitals state”.

However, he does not rule out that, given the scope of the discussions regarding the referral of patients from the state to the private health system, after the Cîrstoiu case, an “extreme” measure will be reached: the prohibition of state-private combination of doctors.

“It can be done like in France and it’s very simple. But you don’t want to, because there are some fabulous interests, which are measured in billions of euros. That’s what it’s all about.”

According to Marius Uscatu, the owners of some of the private clinics are also “state officials. You can’t be outside the system.”

“Well, we’re all moving to Romania!”. The reaction of Dr. Uscatu’s former colleagues from France to the Cîrstoiu case

The doctor Marius Uscatu tells that, after the HotNews.ro revelations about the hidden wealth of Cătălin Cîrstoiu, people from abroad wrote to him. First, patients.

“Doctor, I just had an operation in Germany. I had the operation for free, now I’m going to have my wires removed for free, at I don’t know what great teacher” – is one of the messages received by the doctor.

Uscatu considers “hallucinating this matter of taking the money privately in Romania”.

“I only work privately. My patients know from the beginning what the expenses are. I transparently tell them how much the operation costs, how much this, the other. It is an assumed thing. But how to mix the state with the private? Come, come to me in the state, then come to the private one and I’ll pull your strings! Why?”, asks Marius Uscatu.

His former colleagues from France also wrote to the doctor: “My former colleagues from France were stunned, they said: “Well, we’re all moving to Romania!” Yes, but you have to be a director of a big hospital, a professor and have your own clinic to do this. Not everyone does.”

Marius Uscatu also says that he personally does not know and wonders if there is a doctor “as rich as Cîrstoiu” in the West.

“Dr. Cîrstoiu’s most delicate problem is how he got where he got”

Years ago, after the Residency, Marius Uscatu says that he tried to get a job at the hospital in Slobozia or Fălticeni.

“And I was told: Well, we have barely taken a piece of wire and a piece of brooch in the last 10 years. What do you want to operate with? You can come here just to rub mint and get a salary,” the doctor recalls.

Then, he was told the same thing in other cities around the country. It was happening in 2003. He left.

In 2007, when he already had several years of experience in France, he came to the country and tried to do a PhD. “I was told very clearly: Who are you to have access to a PhD with a scholarship? You have to pay it.”

It costs around 5,000 euros. He eventually did a doctorate which he paid for.

“The professors were impressed by the level with which I had come from France, but they told me: You have no chance to enter Romania in a university clinic, because you are the son of the rain. We can’t put you in, when we have so many people to put in front of us”, says the doctor.

Marius Uscatu is of the opinion that the “most delicate problem” of doctor Cîrstoiu is “the way in which he got where he got”.

Marius Uscatu refers to an article published in 2019 by the newspaper Curentul, according to which Cîrstoiu took the exam for the position at the Residency alone, without any other opponent: “Like all the great maharis and the children of staffs.”

Marius Uscatu also says that, when he gave the Residency, there were 16 candidates for one place.

“Dynasties”

At the age of 35, Cătălin Cîrstoiu became a university professor, recalls Marius Uscatu. “He made his wife head of department by derogation, a fact contested by ANI as well. He made an act of putting her down, then called her again. Dynasty.”

Precisely these “dynastic issues” are the reason why “the vast majority of doctors leave”, in the opinion of Marius Uscatu: “They leave out of disgust, because they have no chance to end up in a university clinic. Here, in fact, is the most serious problem – perhaps even more serious than the fact that it is both state and private, because that is a legislative quibble that can be solved very easily. I think this has not been explained enough and this is the biggest problem: Romanian doctors, like me, leave the country in disgrace. You have no chance of getting into a university clinic if you’re not daddy’s boy.”

“During the Residency you are not allowed to touch the scalpel!”

Dr. Marius Uscatu confesses that he advises “anyone” – students and young doctors – to go abroad to learn.

He claims that “The worst problem is that during the Residency you are not allowed to touch the scalpel! For years you are not allowed to touch the patient!”.

Then, that doctor becomes a specialist in a town in the country and finds himself put in the position of operating on serious cases: “How can you operate on them if you haven’t touched the scalpel until then?”.

“It is the reason why Romanian medicine is at the level it is – the fact that during the Residency we are not allowed to put our hands on the scalpel. Maybe only one or two of those from UMF-istan, the beizadeles. Those are encouraged. But the rest of us are not left behind”, claims the doctor returned from France.

Outside, says Marius Uscatu, he was allowed to operate from the first day: “This is the difference in performance between the Romanian health system and the system outside. And this thing will last long and well, if only the great maharas will operate, so that afterwards they can brag about their achievements.”

At the time of the accusations related to the state-private relationship, Dr. Cătălin Cîrstoiu, who according to the law must be primarily a manager, came and showed the cameras how much he operated, “I brought in the most money the hospital”. The manager was ranked 2-4 in the hospital, out of hundreds of doctors in the number of interventions.

“There are 200-300 managers in hospitals that hold both the state and the private sector in their hands”

In Romania, doctors freely transfer patients from state to private because they are allowed, “there is no control, and the National Integrity Agency is an institution equal to zero”, believes Dr. Marius Uscatu.

He talks about the existence of “200 – 300 doctors in hospitals, moguls of Romanian medicine who control both the state and the private sector, because they also have private clinics and are, at the same time, state managers”.

These characters become powerful “and because every trickster in Romania, every politician, when he ever needed any medical service, reached out and called one of these people. And the system only works that way.”

In addition, everything happens in silence, and doctors do not speak publicly about these things: “Doctor Cîrstoiu’s colleagues will never talk about these things. How to kick a position at the University Hospital, which is the nest with golden chicks? It’s the fear of the boss, there are countless examples of people being spit out of the system because they chose to speak out.”

Over time, “university dynasties”, as Marius Uscatu calls them, have also become the subject of the press. It does not only happen in Bucharest, but also in Craiova, Iași or other big cities.

The world got used to it, however, and it came, little by little, “to no longer interest anyone”, says the doctor: “Because everyone needs a doctor at some point and everyone says: Why bother him? What if, God forbid, I need it?”.