Raed Arafat, the head of the DSU, talks below about the role of the institution he leads in the coordination of emergency medical care and qualified first aid in Romania, all in the context of the new statements made by the Minister of Health yesterday.
I would like to clarify some aspects stipulated in the Law, after seeing comments and interpretations that question the role of the DSU.
Below are extracts from two normative acts, GEO 21/2004 with subsequent amendments and GEO 1 from 2014 with subsequent amendments.
Art. 2 letter a of GEO 21/2004 with subsequent amendments provides that:
Emergency situation - exceptional events, of a non-military nature, that threaten the life or health of the person, the environment, material and cultural values, and to restore the state of normality, the adoption of urgent measures and actions, the allocation of specialized resources and the unitary management of forces are necessary and the means involved;
Art I para. 1 lit. a and b, and para. 5^1 of GEO 1 / 2014 provides:
(1) The Department for Emergency Situations, hereinafter referred to as the Department, is established within the Ministry of Internal Affairs, operational structure, without legal personality, with attributions of:
a) integrated, permanent coordination, at national level, of the activities of civil protection, prevention and management of emergency situations, provision of human, material, financial and other resources necessary to restore the provisional state of normality, including qualified first aid and emergency medical assistance, within the emergency reception units and compartments, hereinafter referred to as the UPU/CPU, as well as within the SMURD structures and public ambulance services, until hospitalization or discharge from the UPU/CPU;
b) elaboration, coordination and methodological evaluation of the professional training and continuing education activity in the field of emergency medical assistance and qualified first aid, in collaboration with the specialized structures of the Ministry of Health and other institutions or structures with attributions in the field;
(5^1) In order to carry out the specific attributions, the Department is composed of functional structures, which include, but are not limited to, the General Directorate for Medical Emergencies, the General Directorate for Civil Protection and the Decision Support Directorate.
Looking at the legal provisions above, from the definition of the emergency situation, it turns out that the emergency situation refers to the individual, to the person, and not necessarily to the disaster that affects several people. The fact that a person suffers a cardiac arrest at home is an emergency situation and requires a quick and coordinated intervention where more resources can intervene from the Fire Brigade-SMURD, Ambulance and/or aviation with SMURD helicopters, if such a situation it is in a rural or hard-to-reach area.
Thus, even current, daily activities serve emergency situations involving one or more people. Even if we are talking about a single person, the displaced resources can be impressive in trying to save that person's life. In other words, the insinuation that the DSU intervenes only when there are calamities and disasters is misleading and represents an approach of those who for many years have been trying to diminish the role of the DSU and the SMURD system in providing first aid and emergency medical care.
The above articles also show the role given to the Department for Emergency Situations in terms of "Integrated coordination, with a permanent character.... including qualified first aid and emergency medical care... up to hospitalization or discharge from the UPU/CPU" which leaves no room for individual interpretations that come with the idea that the DSU deals only when there is a disaster or a calamity to be followed to mothballs until the next disaster or calamity occurs.
From para. 5^1, it follows that the legislator, right from the beginning, gave the DSU a general direction with a specific purpose, namely "Medical Emergencies", thus the respective direction deals with medical emergencies as a whole at the prehospital level and UPU/CPU until the patient's hospitalization or discharge from the UPU/CPU.
There are many aspects to be clarified, but the one above, regarding the DSU and its role in the coordination of emergency medical care and qualified first aid, is one of those that have been brought up several times recently by those who want to disintegrate an integrated system that is FUNCTIONAL!
