The Medika drug wholesaler will as of today suspend supplying all hospitals with medicines and medical supplies due to a debt of HRK 2.1 billion, the president of Medika's management board, Jasminko Herceg, said on Tuesday.

“The debt towards our drug wholesale company has increased to more than two billion kuna. During this quarter we delivered goods valued at about one billion kuna, yet we were paid a maximum of 100 million kuna,” Herceg told Hina.

Hence, he said, the company has decided that it will not supply medicines to hospitals that do not adhere to the legally regulated due payment date of 60 days. This refers to 98 percent of hospitals in Croatia.

There has not been any response from the government and it is not offering any solutions, he said.

“In order to even start resolving the problem, we should have met yesterday to be paid tomorrow. Health Minister Vili Beros is not even answering his phone. Instead, he is directing us to contact Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic and Finance Minister Zdravko Maric,” said Herceg.

Drug wholesalers, pharmacists and drug producers in the Croatian Employers’ Association warned last week that medical supplies to hospitals could be restricted because of a debt of 6.5 billion kuna for medicines already delivered and because the Croatian Health Insurance Institute had stopped paying its debt to pharmacies.

The debt accounts for as much as 4 percent of the state budget.

Their representatives warned that 20 percent of hospitals had, at the start of the year, completely stopped paying anything for delivered medicines.