Health Minister Vili Beros said on Tuesday the state takeover of county hospitals was not a political decision, and in response to the City of Zagreb, which has announced a constitutional lawsuit, he said that it should also take over the hospital's debts if it wants to keep the Sveti Duh hospital.

The transfer of the founding rights of general hospitals is not a political issue, but a tool to regulate the system and enable the financial sustainability of hospitals, Minister Beros told a press conference in Rijeka, held on the occasion of presenting a pilot project of preventative medical examinations.

In response to announcements by the City of Zagreb that it would file a constitutional lawsuit over the transfer of founding rights of hospitals, the minister said that the KB Sveti Duh hospital had an annual budget of about €80 million, and that over the past three years the state had covered €27 million of its debt.

‘If you want to keep things same, take over debts’

“That is nearly a third of that hospital’s total annual budget,” the minister said, telling the Zagreb City Administration, as well as other counties dissatisfied with the takeover, including Istria and Medjimurje counties, that if they wished to keep things the same, they should take care of their own financial obligations and pay their debts.

Beros said that the one paying the debts should be able to manage the situation in hospitals when it comes to their organisation and operation.

“Patients will notice a change in terms of better availability and quality of health care,” he underscored, correcting his yesterday’s statement that the transfer of the founding rights from the counties to the state at the beginning of next year would not affect the patients in any way.

In response to a journalist’s comment on a pre-election political decision to remove directors and steering boards from the opposition, Beros said that this was the first time he had heard that.

That is not true at all, the point is not to change the steering boards or the directors, and the counties will continue to be our partners, he said, reiterating that the system was not functional or sustainable with 63 hospitals, which was too many for slightly less than four million inhabitants.

‘We want to create centres of excellence’

The goal, he said, is to create centres of excellence, additional categorisation of hospitals and a new network of public health care. After 1 January 2024, general hospitals will remain owned by the counties, and the state will take over only the founding rights for the purpose of system reorganisation.

According to him, changes to the network are often opposed by county prefects because they do not want to lose acute care hospital beds, which are their source of funding, regardless of the fact that the occupancy of these beds is 60% or less.

He also explained that the founding rights are transferred only for general hospitals, and that special hospitals, which are usually profitable, would continue to be managed by the counties.