The head of the Association of Wholesalers at the Croatian Chamber of Commerce, Tomislav Kulic, has said that drug wholesalers want the government to pay the debt to drug wholesalers of HRK 2.7 billion by the end of the year and and help define a payment scheme for the rest of the debt which totals HRK 5 billion.
After representatives of drug wholesales on Monday walked out of a meeting with the ministers of finance and health, dissatisfied with the government’s offer, Kulic said on Tuesday that they demanded the payment of HRK 2.7 billion of the total debt by the end of the year.
The rest of the debt, which amounts to HRK 5 billion, should be settled by June 30, 2021, and by that time, drug wholesalers want to define with the competent ministry a payment scheme to reduce the maturity of the remaining debt, Kulic told Hina.
“Our condition is – reduce the debt to drug wholesales to HRK 2 billion of the total debt, so that we can help finance the health system until 30 June next year. Anything less than HRK 2.7 billion is unacceptable for drug wholesalers. The ten biggest drug wholesalers currently owe 1.2 billion kuna to banks and other financial institutions and our liquidity is at the breaking point,” said Kulic, whose association has around 40 members.
Of the HRK 500 million which the government allocated for drug wholesalers in July, members of Kulic’s association received HRK 403 million. However, as the Croatian Health Insurance Institute has not paid HRK 700 million to pharmacies since July, drug wholesalers have been left without the HRK 700 million.
“Since July, the debt has increased by HRK 800 million, and it has been going up by HRK 220 million a month in the hospital sector alone,” Kulic warned.
Some suppliers are no longer willing to supply drug wholesalers with drugs, and two weeks ago some drug wholesalers started reducing drug deliveries to hospitals.
Kulic said the next step would be to expand restriction of drug deliveries to include university hospitals and university hospital centres.
