Hospital fire/ President Iohannis: It's important we find out how such tragedy happened immediately

The "terrible" accident in Piatra Neamt [where a fire broke out in an ICU unit in a hospital - editor's note] showed, once again, why a profound reform of the Romanian public health system is absolutely necessary, President Klaus Iohannis said on Sunday.

"It is a huge tragedy what happened in Piatra Neamt. I am just coming from the church, where we all prayed for the victims of the fire. What can I say: condolences to the grieving families, and to those who survived a speedy recovery. It is very important now to find out very quickly how such a fire was possible in order to avoid similar situations in the future and, obviously, this terrible accident showed us once again, if necessary, why a profound reform of the public healthcare system is absolutely necessary in Romania," Iohannis said in Sibiu.

The head of state mentioned that the teams have started checking the causes of this fire, adding that lessons must be learned to prevent such accidents from ever happening again.

"Unfortunately, the pandemic that has come upon us has put the whole system in an extraordinary state of disrepair, and even more so, the technicians have to make sure that the devices work properly to prevent similar incidents," he added.

In the fire at the County Hospital in Piatra Neamt, 10 patients in the intensive care unit died, and an anaesthetist doctor suffered serious burns. Six other hospitalized patients were taken to the Mobile Hospital in Letcani, which is a COVID support unit.