Hospitals at seismic risk have until 31 December 2026 to secure retrofit funding

Anyone who wants state money to retrofit a hospital at seismic risk now has one date in the calendar on which everything depends: 31 December 2026. Through Order No. 713/2026, the Ministry of Development, Public Works and Administration has rewritten the implementing rules of the national investment programme for retrofitting hospitals, “Mihail Cantacuzino”, and of the national programme for the technical assessment of public buildings at seismic risk in the health and education systems. It is the ministry’s second intervention this summer in the field of buildings at seismic risk, after the one by which blocks of flats damaged by explosions were brought into the retrofit programme.

The amendments do not change who may ask for money, or what for. They change the pace: they introduce firm deadlines where the procedure previously ran indefinitely, they spell out how the funded amount is calculated, and they add two transparency obligations that follow the beneficiary for five years after the works are completed.

What it changes in practice

The most important change is a twofold deadline that cuts the access procedure in half. On the one hand, an investment objective may be included in the list of those proposed for funding only until 31 December 2026. On the other hand, the funding contracts between beneficiaries and the ministry must be concluded by that same date at the latest. The consequence is explicit in the text: if, when the deadline expires, the list still contains objectives for which no contract has been signed, those objectives are removed from the list. The rule applies identically in both programmes, to the retrofitting of hospitals (Articles 13 and 17 of the rules) and to the technical assessment of public buildings (Articles 31 and 33).

The lifespan of the two programmes is now written down in black and white, with different end years. The investment programme for retrofitting hospitals runs from 2023 to 2028. The national technical assessment programme runs from 2023 to 2027. The difference is also reflected in the possibility of extending contracts: for retrofitting, the term may be increased by at most 2 years in justified cases, without going beyond 31 December 2028; for technical assessment, by at most 1 year, without going beyond 31 December 2027. In both cases the extension is granted by addendum and depends on the budget allocations approved annually for this purpose, meaning it is not a right of the beneficiary but a possibility conditioned on money.

The order also clarifies how the sum the state puts up is reached. The funding value under the programme is determined by multiplying the unit cost per square metre of gross floor area, approved by order of the minister, by the gross floor area of the hospital stated in the technical assessment report. A 25% budget margin is then applied to the result. The total value of the objective is obtained by adding to that sum the expenditure that is not funded under the programme. The formula was already provided for in the emergency ordinance, but it is now spelled out in the implementing rules, which narrows the room for interpretation at file level.

How far a health investment can drift from the value approved at the start can be seen in the decisions re-approving indicators: the Pneumology building at Miercurea Ciuc sits in a package of three objectives running 271 million lei above the original estimates.

A second clarification concerns the order in which the ministry looks at files: the documents are checked administratively and centralised in the chronological order of registration. Non-conformities found during the administrative compliance analysis are notified to beneficiaries with reasons, and the beneficiaries are required to complete, correct or revise the documents and resubmit them. Furthermore, the 30-day time limit provided for in Article 22 paragraph (1) of the rules runs from the date the notification is sent and registered with the beneficiary, not from the date the ministry issued it. The same ministry settled in September 2026 how the danger itself is measured: from 11 October 2026, seismic risk maps are drawn up under a single national methodology, down to areas of a few hundred homes.

Retrofit deadlines are not the only calendar hospitals have to follow. The third accreditation cycle also began on 23 September 2026, and the list drawn up by the National Authority for Quality Management in Healthcare (ANMCS) has reached 433 requirements, from a record of the artificial intelligence systems in use to a plan for reducing carbon emissions.

What has changed compared with the previous situation

Until this order, the implementing rules approved by Order MDLPA No. 1.322/2023 contained no deadline for including objectives in the list, nor for signing the funding contracts. An objective could sit on the list without ever reaching a contract, theoretically blocking a place. The list now clears itself automatically on 31 December 2026.

The second entirely new element is the permanent plaque. Article 24¹, introduced by this order, requires beneficiaries, once the objectives funded under the programme are completed and accepted, to mount permanent plaques on the retrofitted buildings, “ensuring transparency and public information regarding the works carried out”. The requirements are unusually detailed for an implementing rule: the plaque is mounted within at most 2 months of acceptance upon completion of the works and stays in place for at least 3 years from mounting or, at the beneficiary’s choice, permanently. It must be mounted at the main entrance to the building, on the main façade, to the left or the right of the main door, at a height of about 1.80 metres measured from the finished pavement level to the median axis of the plaque, rigidly and permanently fixed to the structural support of the façade. The shape, dimensions and materials are set out in a new annex (Annex No. 9 to the rules), reproduced in facsimile in the Official Gazette of Romania, with two variants: a horizontal and a vertical plaque. Inside the logo, the year of completion and acceptance of the retrofit works is entered.

The third new element is post-acceptance monitoring. Article 21 receives a paragraph (7) requiring beneficiaries that have filed acceptance reports upon completion of the works to upload a sworn declaration to the digital platform each year. The declaration confirms compliance with the obligations in Article 15 paragraph (4) of the emergency ordinance, that is, essentially, that the building keeps its designated use. It is filed starting with the first year after the acceptance report is submitted and until the 5-year period expires, by the end of January of the current year, for the preceding year. The model declaration is the new Annex No. 8 to the rules and requires, as mandatory attachments, both the operating approval or licence and “clear and relevant” photographic material certifying that the assumed obligations have been met.

Finally, a technical amendment with practical effects: the new Article 42¹ establishes that the time limits in the rules are calculated in accordance with Articles 2,552 and 2,553 of the Civil Code. Previously the method of calculation was not specified, which left room for disputes about start and end days. This kind of clarification follows the same logic as the law that allowed the phased acceptance of public construction works: the state is trying to remove the procedural ambiguities that stall building sites.

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