Our experts supported the National Authorities from Romania by developing an adequate list of medical products used in emergency medical products and devices to be centrally procured in compliance with international best practices and local regulations.

A UN institution is supporting the National Authorities to scale-up the centralized procurement for emergency health services.

Fiscal space for health is constrained by ineffective procurement practices, which drives overspending on medicines, medical devices, and supplies, contributing to budgetary inefficiency. Although the share of drugs and medical devices in total current health expenditure has decreased from 40% in 2011 to 27% in 2017, it remains significantly higher than in other EU member states, including Central and European Countries. Unfortunately, the responsible state institutions don’t have the legal mandate to procure goods and services in the health sector, while others continue to conduct a limited number of centralized procurement procedures, mainly for medicines and vaccines. This project aims to support the UN to strengthen National Authorities’ capacity to conduct centralized procurement for medical devices and consumables for emergency services.

The project included five activities: (i) review of a list of medical products prepared by National Authorities, to be centrally procured; followed by (ii) provision of support in the preparation of market studies for the medical products to be centrally procured; then (iii) review of the draft technical specifications prepared by National Authorities priorities for the respective medical products and support in the development of the associated terms of reference; and then (iv) support in conducting consultations with sector stakeholders on the draft terms of reference, including National Authorities’ responses to feedback from suppliers and users.

Recommendations were made addressing the issues listed above.