The Collective

On October 30, 2015, in Bucharest, Romania, the metal band Goodbye to Gravity performs a concert at a club called Colectiv. Pyrotechnics cause a fire to break out that quickly engulfs the club, resulting in the immediate deaths of 27 people and the injury of 180 more. Over the following months, an additional 37 victims die, partially due to the lack of proper healthcare at public hospitals. Journalists from Gazeta Sporturilor (The Sports Gazette) begin investigating the mismanagement of healthcare by public hospitals after sources inform them that the disinfectants used are diluted. Testing confirms this, and the journalists subsequently publish a hard-hitting story about the supplier, Hexi Pharma, and how it falsified documentation for the supplied disinfectants. The story also reveals that the government failed to properly verify the supplier and its products. The Minister of Health, Patriciu Achimaș-Cadariu [ro], orders an investigation. When Cătălin Tolontan, a journalist from Gazeta, goes on TV to discuss the investigation, the Minister of Health dismisses the journalist's insistence for facts and evidence, stating that governmental testing shows the disinfectant solutions are 95 percent effective. The journalists push further and find a source that confirms the intelligence service has known for years that bacterial infections were killing people, but did nothing. Gazeta publishes the story, and mass protests continue over the corruption and lack of proper healthcare protection. Consequently, the Minister of Health resigns, and a criminal investigation begins against the CEO of Hexi Pharma, Dan Condrea [ro]. The government announces at a press conference that they have tested the Hexi Pharma products and found the solutions were all diluted. Tolontan asks about the 95 percent effectiveness previously claimed by the Ministry of Health, and the Ministry responds by refusing to comment on their previous claim. Shortly after, Condrea is killed in a car crash. Later, Gazeta obtains a video of a patient in a hospital with maggots festering in their wound. Their source, a frustrated doctor, explains that patient deaths resulting from diluted disinfectants or inadequate blood transfusion services continue unabated, even after the Social Democratic governmental ousting in late 2015. Vlad Voiculescu, the new Minister of Health, meets with the doctor, and she details how hospital management avoided the problems and did nothing while patients were dying. She also discusses how hospitals treat patients inhumanely, as well as how bribes are arranged between hospital managers and doctors. Voiculescu concludes that there isn't a single unit throughout the public hospitals that isn't affected by profound administrative corruption. Learning that he cannot fire the corrupt hospital managers currently in place, many of whom bribed their way into their positions, he demands the introduction of extremely strict regulations for any new hospital managers. He begins to realize that the whole system is rotten, and that eradicating corruption would entail "firing everyone." When he withdraws funding from a lung transplant unit, deeming it dangerous, he becomes the target of a press campaign led by Mayor of Bucharest Gabriela Firea, who accuses him of wasting taxpayer money on transporting patients to Vienna, even though the unit in Bucharest is supposedly fully accredited to perform the same operation. A professor privately admits to Voiculescu that the unit should not have been accredited and only was due to political pressure, but begs Voiculescu not to speak about this in public to avoid a scandal that could ruin the reputation of the institute. Election day arrives, and the Social Democrats sweep the election, obtaining the most votes. At Gazeta, Tolontan's colleague reveals she had an off-the-record conversation with someone who warns the journalists about their and their families' safety. Later on, the public hospital appoints a manager who is unqualified and legally unable to manage a hospital.