The “9th World
Days of Thermalism” and the “39th SITH International Congress” in
Levico Terme,
SPA TREATMENT IN
WITH OUR NATIONAL HEALTH
SYSTEM
Lecturer: Laviniu Munteanu M.D.
President
and Representative of SITH – OMTh
Along side with
Germany, Italy, France, Rusia and Czech Republic, Romania is one of the richest
country in mineral waters, therapeutic mud and of course in spas and health
resorts.
In order to improve the quality of
life, Romanian authorities provides an ample policy and strategy to protect the
human health, especially in chronic
diseases, using and encouraging the spa treatment, the medical rehabilitation
programs and the preventive treatment in our cure centers, located in the spa
network.
Most of the central European
countries, as well as the Romanian authorities, agree that in the national
healt system, there are 3 categories of diseases, or groups of pacients, who
need switable therapy. What is important is that we include in this health
system, also the specific treatment provided in spas and health resorts for
pacients with chronic diseases.
In this new concept, most of the out
pacients are treated by the family physicians or general practitioners. In the second
group are included the acute and subacute
diseases, which are treated especially in hospitals. The third group,
representing the chronic diseases, can
be directed also to the well equipped treatment centers, located in spas and
health resorts, where the natural curative factors like (mineral waters,
therapeutic mud, bioclimat), physical medicine units and medical rehabilitation
methods, can provide by highly qualified medical staff, very efficient
therapeutic results, assured in more attractive environmental conditions,
comparing with those located the urban areas.
This
last group of chronic diseases, receives the treatment mostly in cure hotels
and sanatoriums located in spas, where most of the costs and expenses are
much lower, comparing with the costs in hospitals.
Our statistics shows that the
average period of stay in Romanian spa network is 12.4 nights per persons (3
week in sanatoriums or spa clinics and 11 nights in cure hotels).
From the total accommodation and
treatment capacity in Romanian spa network, the main owners are the following:
SIND
Referring on the therapeutic
profiles and groups of chronic diseases treated in Romanian spa network, there
are the following, in purcetages:
-
Diseases of locomotoric system 53%
-
Diseases of cardio-vascular system
20%
-
Diseases of digestive and metabolic
diseases system 11%
-
Diseases of respiratory ways 6%
-
Stress diseases, neuroses and psycho
social diseases 8%
-
Other chronic diseases 2%
In
represented
by the “Individual Contribution for Health Insurance” covered 7% by the
employer and 6,5% by the employed people related to the monthly salary (for the
active population), or 22% by the Ministry of Labour, represented by the
“National Pension Insurance Rights Office” and 9,5% by the individual
pensioners.
Referring on the payment of the spa
tickets, the active population (employed people) can pay 50% of the
ticket price, representing accommodation, meals and treatment, getting and
using also the trade union support and the Contribution for Health Insurance.
The pensioners can pay 50%
from their monthly pension and the other 50% is payed by the Ministery of
Labour. That means 320.000 spa tickets in the past year (2004) for the
pensioners.
This system, assures a real attraction,
mostly for the pensioners. The majority of the pensioners, covers only 10% or
even less percentage from the total amount of the tickets price. The difference up to 100%, can be covered by
the public security system or by insurance companies.
The partly payed spa tickets used by
chronic pacients, represent 35-36% from the total number of the spa tickets in
2004 (the past year).
Over 90% of this category of
pacients, based on the health inssurance, get the accommodation, meals and
treatment in 2-3 stars cure hotels and sanatoriums.
The handicapped people, the
children up to age of 18 and the veterans can get the full package
(accommodation, meals and treatment) free of charge.
The theoretical full duration of a
cure programme is 18 days, or longer, in case of medical rehabilitation tickets.
Based or not on the public support, the
spa treatment assures an important
decrease of the costs for the health care of chronic diseases at national level,
as well as a decrease of payment for
seek leave days and for medication of active population.
This positive fact is also because
most of the spa pacients use their
holydays for the spa treatment and the majority of them get good and
longterm therapeutic results.
That is why, the whole spa network
and cure hotels pay more and more attention for improving year by year the
hotel and restaurant facilities, especial modernising the medical facilities and equipment.
They also provide better attraction
to the clients for spending the evenings
and weekends in our spas (cultural events, relaxing games, trips, etc).
Both, the public and the private
effort to increase continuously, the
confort in the cure hotels and to provide the modern medical equipment in
our spas, comes to motivate and to cover
the increasing number of chronic
diseases of civilization. This has
been demonstrated by many European
statistics.
All this effort determines the
recommendation, as a priority, of this category of chronic pathology, by
the family doctors (general practitioners) to go to the spa treatment.
In this respect, we recently wrote,
printed and distributed a very specialized
book, addressed especially to all
the family doctors (general practitioners), for selecting the most suitable spa
for each chronic pacient.
Anyway the actual tendency is to
direct and recommend the majority of chronic diseases, widely spread in our
modern, urban and stressfull life, to the spa cure which is very suitable to
them.
For this purpose we use
educational-sanitary means and administrative-organizatoric means to direct
most of chronic pacients in ecologic, environmental and confortable spa treatment centers, well
equipped by modern medical equippment, agreed by the Health Authorities, by the
Pensioners Office, by the public insurance authorities and private insurance
companies and by the clients, of course.
Only in this way, we can expect
better and better therapeutic results, getting more and more pacients, in the
future in our spa network.