Health Minister's proposal to force drivers who cause fatal accidents to work in hospitals sparks debate
Moldova's Health Minister, Ala Nemerenco, has proposed that drivers who cause road accidents that result in fatalities should be required to work in hospitals alongside medical staff.
Nemerenco said that this would be a way for drivers to experience the consequences of their actions and to learn about the impact that their reckless driving has on others.
"They should be put to work alongside medical staff," Nemerenco said. "They should wash the blood from stretchers, ambulances and emergency rooms. They should take amputated limbs out of the operating room. They should stand and assist in operations that can last 5-6 hours. They should transfer corpses to the morgue and hand them over to relatives. They should communicate the bad news, not the doctors. Maybe then some people will come to their senses."
Nemerenco also appealed to drivers, saying that they should be more careful and that they should not put their own lives or the lives of others at risk.
"Dear drivers, I understand that you don't care about your own life or the lives of your loved ones who are in the car with you, but we, doctors, ask you, please, don't overload our hospitals, intensive care units and surgery departments with the results of your heroism," Nemerenco said. "Associated traumas are the most complicated medical conditions, and we need multidisciplinary teams to intervene. These patients are often unable to be transferred to more advanced stages of care. Ambulances, resuscitation teams and teams of doctors go out at night to intervene, operating for hours, resuscitating."
The proposal has been met with mixed reactions. Some people have praised Nemerenco for her initiative, while others have criticised her for being too harsh.
