Looking for a cure

Romania's health system is in bad shape. It suffers from a lower percentage of GDPspent on its services by the state than any other new European accession country, a lack of accountability for medical malpractice and a failure to bring the mortality rates into line with eastern European norms.
Although the country has managed to contain a potential AIDS epidemic on the scale of Russia and Ukraine, tuberculosis is still a problem for thousands of those in poverty-stricken conditions.
Private health care is growing and new legislation is making it easier for new firms to offer alternative services. But this will probably only be available to the small middle class that has yet to reach the same proportions as otherEUnations.
However the biggest infirmity facing Romania is a 'de facto' private system that exists within state institutions, where patients routinely bribe medical staff for every service from changing beds to transplanting organs.
Through interviews with many of those affected by the difficulties, solutions and opportunities within the system, The Diplomat investigates how to make Romania better.

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