The Right to Health Care for People with Oncological Diseases as well as for People Suspected of Cancer in the Context of COVID-19

ABSTRACT: In the context of Covid-19 it was emphasized that patients with oncological diseases who need to be diagnosed following hospital medical investigations, as well as those who are already registered with this serious condition and need specialized treatment, should be allowed the right to health care, given that, although strictly speaking, it is not an emergency, medical investigations or treatments cannot be rescheduled and may necessarily require hospital treatment. Chronic hospitalizations have been discontinued, with the exception of neoplastic patients, whose curative or rebalancing treatment cannot be delayed. However, in Romania, the Ministry of Health has not regulated at the normative level the selection criteria of persons representing an emergency, being taken only general measures of a recommendatory nature, which may lead to dysfunctions within the health units regarding the protection of persons suspected of oncological conditions or who must continue these treatments.

KEYWORDS: health, human rights, COVID-19, hospital treatment