Drug wholesalers started restricting medical supplies to 15 hospitals since their total debt now exceeds 6 billion kuna, the Croatian Employers' Association (HUP) said on Tuesday.

The HUP association explained that some hospitals have not been paying anything to the suppliers for the past two months, while some had covered a mere 10 percent of the cost of supplies delivered in that period.

Each day, the debt increases by 20 million kuna.

The association fears that procrastinating with payments will worsen if some concrete steps are not taken to address the situation.

The 2021 state budget amounts to 147.3 billion kuna, and as of March 1, the debt to drug wholesalers accounts for 4.07 percent of the state budget, the drug wholesalers warn.