In fact, as shown by Eurostat statistics (Eurostat. 2012), health is the second largest function of government
spending (after social protection) at 7.5% of EU GDP in 2010 (14.7% of total government expenditure).
Compared to that, the share of the total government expenditure in Romania is, according to the above cited
organization, 3.6% in 2010, less than in 2002 (4.1%). As seen in the above chart, the funds allocated for health
care are almost ten times higher in 2011 than in 1999 and they doubled compared with 2005. What both people
and specialists agree on is that the services' levels are not higher than in 1999, even though some of the hospitals
have been upgraded. Some units, considered to be ineffective, were closed in 2010 and 2011. The income of
medical personnel decreased in real terms and lots of doctors and nurses left Romania for other European
countries, where they were offered much better wages, causing a severe shortage of medical staff in Romanian
hospitals. A conclusion drawn from all these observations is that while the government allocation for medical