The Public Procurement in the Health Sector from Romania – in and after the Pandemic

In the pandemic, procurement of medical products/equipment was the priority for most public institutions, especially hospitals. The novelty of the research is the lack of studies on the volume of medical products during and after the pandemic in Romania. The aim of this research is to carry out a punctual but also in-depth analysis of public procurement contracts in the health sector, in order to determine the influence of the pandemic on the activity of contracting authorities, but also to establish future research directions in terms of procurement policies. A total of 23,838 public procurement contracts have been identified during the period 2019-2021, for which tender notices have been published on the Romanian electronic procurement platform. The research is based on a comparative analysis of the information contained in the notices for awarding the public procurement contracts, in terms of value and quantity, in terms of categories of award procedures, types of public institutions that have purchased and types of products. Following the study completion, it has been found that, in case of unforeseen events, the public procurement is no longer carried out according to transparent procedures, the rules for awarding contracts are no longer followed, leading to procurement specialists being put under pressure. The results of the research conducted in the field of medical products and equipment procurement may be of interest to economic operators for rethinking and developing business strategy in the medical sector, but also to public authorities, to encourage the medical industry at national level.