Government will try to solve the problem of debts in the healthcare system by reorganizing the hospital system.
In the first three months of this year, hospitals have created additional 160 million kuna of debt. New hospital managers will be appointed within days, and they will have a difficult task ahead of them – how to cure the seriously ill hospital system in Croatia, reports HRT on May 3, 2016.
Despite modern equipment and good organization, the Dubrovnik hospital cannot stop making debt. The hospital currently owes more than 80 million kuna. “Every month, we have about a million and a half kuna of new debt which we cannot pay. Last year, we paid around nine million kuna in interest”, warned Jerko Ferri Certić, the temporary administrator of the Dubrovnik General Hospital.
Other hospitals are also in debt. It is clear than functional reorganization of hospitals is one of solutions. “There is no need for each hospital in the same area to have same medical equipment. It has been decided that the hospital in Čakovec will acquire CT equipment, while the hospital in Varaždin will have MRI equipment. As far as I know, it should be implemented soon”, said Stjepan Koraj, the temporary administrator of the Čakovec County Hospital.
The Hospital Medical Centre in Rijeka has already divided areas of expertise with the Paediatric Orthopaedic Clinic from Lovran. The hospital in Rijeka is the only health institution in which revenues are greater than expenses.
Health Minister Dario Nakić explained how the hospital system would be reorganized and where the national and regional hospitals would be located. He announced that the national hospital for adults and the national hospital for children will be located in Zagreb. Regional hospitals will be organized in accordance with geographical location – one each in Osijek, Slavonski Brod, Varaždin, Rijeka, Zadar and Split, and two in Zagreb. Two sub-regional hospitals will be in Pula and Dubrovnik.
“We are losing money due to lack of quality control within hospitals. We will insist that hospitals submit a financial report every month – how much they spend on staff, how much is allocated for antibiotics and drugs in general, and especially for expensive drugs”, said Nakić.
