Romania has virtually the worst public health system in EU and there is no surprise that it is far from being prepared for tackling the coronavirus infection.
On major issue is that corruption (e.g. among hospital managers) has led to hospitals to not have the minimum equipment (masks, gloves) not even for a week or two.
In this context lots of medical workers got infected and quite a lot decided to quit. The government wants to tackle this issue by either withdrawing their right to practice medicine or expanding their notice period.
Since Romania already has a significant medical staff deficit, the second option is more likely. Currently the law mentions a 20 working days period notice (~ 1 month), but the government is considering 60 working days (~ 3 months). Based on some epidemic spreading simulations this will cover the worst period of the epidemics. This means de facto forcing the medical staff to face the infection without proper equipment.
Working without proper equipment means a much higher chance of getting infected, infecting colleagues and patients.
There was a lot of debate over this issue and I am wondering if such measures are compatible with EU laws or the emergency sate can simply override some EU laws that have priority over national laws.
Question: Can an EU country government force its medical doctors work with SARS-CoV2 infected patients without the proper equipment?
Note: Some equipment was indeed received very recently, a few weeks after the first coronavirus case was officially confirmed in Romania.