ZAGREB, Jan 19 (Hina) - Health and Social Welfare Minister Andrija Hebrang has said that the debt of the public health system totalled 7.318 billion kuna on 29 December when he took over the ministry from his predecessor, Andro
Vlahusic. The new minister described the inherited financial situation as critical.
ZAGREB, Jan 19 (Hina) - Health and Social Welfare Minister Andrija
Hebrang has said that the debt of the public health system totalled
7.318 billion kuna on 29 December when he took over the ministry from
his predecessor, Andro Vlahusic. The new minister described the
inherited financial situation as critical.#L#
The debt of the Croatian Health Insurance Agency (HZZO) amounted to
3.686 billion kuna. Hospitals' debts for drugs they were provided with
by pharmacies accounted for one billion of this amount. As a result,
wholesale pharmacies asked for the blockade of hospitals' accounts,
Hebrang told a news conference on Monday.
University hospitals should pay back 1.082 billion kuna of the debt to
suppliers, while the debt of other hospitals and clinics totalled 943
million kuna.
Hebrang went on to say that when the HDZ (Croatian Democratic Union)
government lost the 2000 election and went into opposition, it left a
debt of four billion kuna in public health, however, the sector's
claimed the same amount of money, so there was practically no debt.
Hebrang accused the previous coalition government of failing to
provide him with any data on the total debt in public health, so he
learnt of how the situation was serious from a dramatic letter sent by
the association of wholesale pharmacies.
The minister announced that the debt of the public health sector would
no longer be paid off with loans but that they would be covered with
budgetary funds. He said the Health Ministry would set up a
centralised system of monitoring the accounts of all public health
institutions.
Commenting on last week's replacements and appointments, Hebrang said
that only one tenth of all members of managing boards of hospitals
were replaced. "I am not interested in how many people will be
replaced, but in the results of the managing boards," the minister
said.
(1EUR=7.7 kuna)
(Hina) ms sb