Some positive news from Croatia’s hospitals.
One third of the hospitals in receivership has recorded positive results in the first half of this year. That was accompanied by the shortening of waiting lists as well. The Ministry of Health expects that the other hospitals will achieve positive results by the end of the year, according to a report in Jutarnji List on August 1, 2015.
“Eleven hospitals have shown better indicators, but other hospitals are catching up and I believe that by the end of the year they will all have positive results”, said the minister of health Siniša Varga.
He explained that the hospitals have achieved such great results primarily due to the exit of the Croatian Health Insurance Fund (HZZO) from the state treasury and the introduction of new models for making contracts with HZZO.
Out of the 33 hospitals included in the national plan, 11 of them, according to the Ministry of Health, had positive operating results, while the remaining two-thirds of hospitals recorded decreasing losses. The minister said that the results achieved in the first six months of this year show that the final targets will be achieved by the end of 2017.
“All hospitals have begun to work on the quality of health care”, said the minister, adding that there are a lot of positive comments from patients themselves who have expressed satisfaction with receiving timely medical services.
He concluded that there is visible progress in all directions, because public health data show a reduction in mortality, increasing life spans and better quality of life indicators.
Data show that, in the first half of the year, hospital losses have decreased from last year’s 742 million kuna to 153 million. Largest hospitals have reduced the losses in the second quarter by 80 percent in comparison with the first quarter, from 125 million to 26 million kuna.
“Given the effects of the reforms and the first results of the implementation of the national plan in eleven Croatian hospitals, we believe that in the coming period the other 22 hospitals will implement all of the key measures and that they will join this positive trend, so that in 2017 we can eliminate all debts and permanently stop hospital losses”, concluded the ministry in a statement.
