About the Institution

The earliest records of the organisation of a healthcare institution in the area of the town of Panciu date from around 1876, when Doctor Bally practised as a doctor for the town of Panciu. The hospital as a healthcare institution needed by the community was established later, around 1877, on the initiative of Prefect Nicolaide. The building was erected in the north-eastern part of the town in an area with green spaces. The hospital building consisted of a ground floor and an upper floor. On the upper floor there were two large wards with 5 beds each, one for men and the other for women. Also on the upper floor were a consulting room and the assistant surgeon's quarters. The ground floor was intended for contagious patients and comprised: 3 patient rooms, a linen store, a laundry, a kitchen and a spare room.

The hospital's first doctor was Adolf Elias, followed by Octavian Blasianu, who worked here for 3 years between 1879-1882, followed by Doctor Neculai Popa, who practised between 1885-1888, and Corneliu Pacuraru between 1889-1892. Most doctors stayed around a year or even less. Doctors Rafail Rossin and Emanoil Weiss practised between 1892-1896. Doctor Rossin was involved in analysing the Vizantea thermal waters. As a result, it was concluded that they are similar to those at Techirghol. Supported by the Ministry of Health and Vizantea Town Hall, in 1926 he built a pavilion needed to accommodate and treat those who came each summer to improve their health.

In 1892, a kind of hospital was set up in a house outside the town, provided by the mayor of the time, Vasile Apostoleanu, for the admission of cholera patients. Until 1895 this hospital had Neculai Panciu as its steward. For many years the hospital was run by Nicolae Antohe, an erudite doctor and a well-liked figure in Panciu.

In 1900, the hospital employed one doctor, one assistant surgeon-steward, one midwife, one healthcare assistant, one cook and one stable hand.

On 16 September 1900 Mardare Tomita was the doctor of Panciu Hospital. In 1903 the hospital underwent major repairs. The doctor who became identified with Panciu Hospital through his commitment to ensuring proper conditions and his care for patients was Nicolae Antohe, director from 1905.

Following the military campaign of 1916, the southern part of the county was occupied by the armies of the Central Powers. Behind the front line, in addition to the existing civilian hospitals, military hospitals were also set up for Romanian and Russian wounded and sick, as Russia was Romania's ally in the Entente.

On 18 January 1917 the General Headquarters of the Romanian Army sent a letter to the Putna Prefecture announcing that Panciu Hospital had to be relocated. At that moment 150 wounded were admitted. In this situation, the medical staff were evacuated first to Diocheti and then to Paunesti, being involved in treating the wounded and combating the typhus epidemic.

On 1 June 1918, Doctor G. Baiatu handed over the inventory and the management of the hospital to Doctor Nicolae Antohe.

Despite the difficulties encountered, Panciu Hospital kept most of its inventory in good condition.

Because during the war the imposing hospital building erected in 1877-1878 was bombed and could not be rebuilt afterwards, the Ministry of Health bought the Alaci house in 1925 and fitted it out as a hospital, a building that collapsed in the 1940 earthquake.

During the interwar period, the following worked at Panciu hospital for longer or shorter periods :

• Nicolae Antohe, as chief physician of the hospital until his retirement on 1 July 1930;

• Chiritescu Ion, captain physician, with a private practice;

• Profira Nacu, a graduate of the Bucharest Faculty of Medicine in 1925, who came to Panciu in 1926;

• Maricel Nacu, a graduate of the Bucharest Faculty of Medicine in 1925, who came to Panciu in 1926;

• Doctor N. Rosenberg, born in Israel, who came to Panciu as a practising physician;

• In 1920 the following were employed as health agents: Ion Antohe, Teodor Antohe, Sava Ciubotaru, Iosif Zabava, Ecaterina Stefanovici, Maria D. Ioan, Maria Stoian;

• In 1928 Gheorghe Ghimpu health officer, Marghioala Balint and Anca R. Marin, healthcare assistants;

• Duta Pricopie, who came from Sascut in 1918.

• Maria Talasman and Pachita Diac, midwives, from 1936. 

A very hard period for Panciu Hospital was that of the Great Depression (1929-1933), when numerous categories of state employees went unpaid and factories and plants were closed for long periods, workers becoming unemployed; town halls could not collect the taxes owed by citizens and in turn could not pay the contribution due to the hospital to cover its operating costs, a situation in which the hospital remained closed from October 1930 until August 1931.

The earthquake of November 1940 turned the whole town of Panciu into a vast mass of rubble. The hospital building on Strada Mare collapsed. Through the efforts of mayor Adolf Capatana, the reconstruction plan for the town of Panciu, drawn up and approved by the Ion Antonescu Cabinet, provided for a new hospital building that also included a communal bathhouse.

The building was erected during the Second World War, in 1942, but it could not be brought into use until 1947 owing to the severe shortages the country was experiencing as a result of the four years of war.

The healthcare system faced not only the harsh poverty following the earthquake, the war and the famine aggravated by the great drought, but also the danger of typhus; thus, on 12 December 1947, teams were formed and assigned across the town and its neighbourhoods to act against the epidemic.

In 1948, the Panciu Urban Health District employed doctors Sedecaru Herman and Sedecaru Maria.

The first chief physician of the Panciu District was Stancu Nicolae, followed by the paediatrician Avachian Ion.

In 1955 the Panciu Unified Hospital was established with 30 beds, its director being Doctor Vintea Eugenia, with Doctor Sedecaru Herman as consultant physician.

Meanwhile the state's interest in improving the health of the population increased significantly, reflected both in the growth of medical staff and in the modernisation and expansion of the hospital's wards, so that on 31 December 1969 Panciu Hospital was classified as an urban hospital, category III small towns, with 130 beds, distributed as follows : 

30 internal medicine beds;

25 surgery;

45 obstetrics-gynaecology;

30 paediatrics.

After 1968, the urban territory was divided into several medical districts; Panciu Hospital had under its authority the rural districts of : Movilita, Fitionesti, Tifesti, Straoane Racoasa,Campuri, Soveja, and later Vizantea-Livezi.

After the abolition of the regions and districts in February 1968, the building housing the Militia and the Securitate, built in 1963, became available following the restructuring of those two institutions and was occupied by the hospital's Chronic Diseases ward until 2002. The ward had 50 beds, its head being Doctor Chirita Lucia.

        In 1977, when the director was Doctor Eugen Baleanu, a renowned doctor of Panciu Hospital whose name is linked to the hospital's development through the construction of the maternity unit with 55 beds, the paediatrics unit, the clinical laboratory, the radiology room, the ambulance station and the duty building, the institution had 304 employees, distributed across centres, dispensaries, wards and units. 

Between 1977 and 1989 the activity of Panciu Hospital was carried out under the new organisation imposed by the communist regime, the facility coming to manage 210 beds .

Over four years, between 1981 and 1984, 16 general practitioners were assigned to Panciu Hospital through the centralised system. 

At the beginning of 1989, the staffing chart for the area under the authority of Panciu Hospital comprised: 51 doctors, of whom 25 at rural dispensaries, 9 at the polyclinic, 4 at the urban dispensary, 1 at COT Soveja, 9 at Panciu Hospital

In the post-communist period, the retention of doctors in rural areas was low; trainee doctors came and then left for specialisation or transferred to their home region. Some structural and modernisation changes took place, and the present will in turn become another page of history.