REGIONAL ECONOMIC FORUM MOLDOVA 2025

19th Edition – Vatra Dornei, July 9–13, 2025

Thematic Panel:

Health and Medical Services in the Moldova Region

Speaker:
Dr. Tiberius Brădățan – Senior Emergency Medicine Physician, Suceava County Hospital

Topic of the Intervention:
“The Medical Staff Crisis and Retention Strategies in Emergency Departments”

Dr. Tiberius Marius Brădățan, senior emergency medicine physician and representative of Suceava County Hospital, raised an alarm regarding the regional inequities within the healthcare system and advocated for an integrated and sustainable approach to health that includes human resources, infrastructure, and local coordination as inseparable elements.

Human Resource Crisis: Healthcare is Done by Professionals, Not Bureaucrats

One of the core messages of the intervention concerned human resources in healthcare – a topic Brădățan knows firsthand as an active physician and former Secretary of State at the Ministry of Health.

“We build palaces but forget about people. A healthcare system cannot develop without well-trained and motivated personnel. Human resources do not appear out of nowhere. They must be cultivated, trained, and retained.”

Brădățan criticized the bureaucratic bottlenecks affecting hiring in the public healthcare system, often treated under the logic of budget austerity, and argued for liberalizing hospital recruitment regardless of economic context.

“Treating healthcare as a civil service institution is a big mistake. You cannot demand performance from a system that is not allowed to hire.”

Medical Education – The Foundation for a Healthy Labor Market

The example of Suceava University, with its programs in general medicine, nursing, and physiotherapy, was presented as a best practice that should be replicated and supported regionally.

“We need to have as many students in medical training as possible so that later we can select professionals. There are no magic solutions. Only vision and perseverance.”

Brădățan insisted that strategies for retaining medical staff must be complemented by local measures such as housing, facilities, and a stable professional climate.

“The healthcare system is like a living organism. It only works as well as its weakest link,” Dr. Brădățan explained the importance of an integrated approach: not only high-performing hospitals but also well-developed primary, community, and outpatient care.

“We can invest as much as we want in hospitals, but if we don’t strengthen family medicine and community centers, emergencies will continue to be overwhelmed by patients who have nowhere else to go.”

Integrated Community Centers – A Patient Navigation Model

Drawing on experience gained at the Ministry of Health, Brădățan praised the operation of integrated community centers – essential places for guiding patients from isolated areas.

“The community doctor, social worker, and local administration must form a team. People don’t know where to go. They need help navigating the system.”

In one of the most direct passages of his speech, Brădățan criticized the lack of major investments in Moldova, especially in the first version of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan.

“Moldova had only one investment—in Iași. That’s it. Meanwhile, Transylvania, already more developed, received much more. This is not fair. You cannot claim you want equity while leaving an entire region in the desert.”

Healthcare Is Neither Public Nor Private: It Must Work as a Whole

In conclusion, Brădățan advocated for a unifying national vision in which the public and private systems are not competitors but complement each other.

“We have only one health—the patient’s. There is no public and private. There is only efficiency, accessibility, and responsibility.”

His closing tone was sincere and slightly critical:

“Maybe I was a bit emotional, but I say it with conviction. Moldova is not lacking capable people. It has professionals but needs to be allowed to develop. We are not asking for privileges, only the right to grow.”

Conclusion

Tiberius Brădățan’s speech was a manifesto for equity and professionalism in the healthcare system, as well as a call for reconstructing the mindset of decision-makers, who must understand that without an integrated vision, no strategy will work.

At FERM 2025, the voice of the emergency physician from Suceava represented not only professional experience but also the suffering of a region left behind. It is a signal that deserves to be heard—and transformed into public policy.