During March 11 and March 26, 2021, the Foreign Investors Council (FIC), in partnership with the Ministry of Health, successfully organized the second edition of the project "Leaders for Excellence in Healthcare", which consisted in courses dedicated to the top management medical staff in the hospitals in Romania.
This edition was supported by important partners who believed in this project: the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Investments and European Projects, the National Agency for Public Procurement, the National House for Health Insurance, the Ministry of Development, Public Works and Administration, Maastricht University, University of Sheffield Hallam, the European Investment Bank, Presidential Adviser to the Department of Public Health of the Presidential Administration and His Excellency, Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to Bucharest.
The courses were held online for six days in March and were structured in 3 modules, focused on both the development of soft skills and of technical skills: Leadership and Communication, Financing Procedures and Public Procurement and Financing of the healthcare system in order to respond to the needs of participants. The content of the courses was developed by lecturers, taking into account their knowledge and experience in the field, and adapted taking into consideration the responses of the participant to questionnaires, to identify skills and knowledge they would like to improve, but also the challenges they face in the current activity. The courses were held by lecturers from prestigious universities in the United Kingdom and the Kingdom of the Netherlands, representatives of key health authorities, international financial institutions, and also representatives of the private sector in Romania.
More than 30 participants from 22 hospitals in Bucharest and in the country took part in this edition, from both large and smaller hospitals with various specialties, COVID and non-COVID hospitals. The participants had the opportunity to learn new information in their areas of interest, to interact with lecturers and to share common experiences, to find solutions and answers to some problems they face in their work. Hospital managers, medical, financial and procurement directors have recognized the importance of a training program dedicated to those with hospital management positions, such as the one organized by the FIC, and that there is an urgent need to have access to such courses for as many hospitals in Romania as possible.
Since 2013, when FIC started developing several projects dedicated to the medical staff to draw attention to the doctor’s exodus, continuing with a series of courses dedicated to students and residents in the medical field, then focusing on hospital managers through the project "Leaders for Excellence in Healthcare”, FIC strongly believed that in order to improve the medical system, special attention needs to be paid to the development of health professionals. Convinced that health is a priority for Romania, and that a qualitative medical system must always be based on human resources, FIC aims to continue this project, which offers the opportunity for continuous training of medical staff in management positions.