It is possible that some regional hospitals will be removed from the prohibition list for privatization to be offered for sale because they are loss-making and we continue to pour money into them. This was admitted today by the Minister of Health, Prof. Hristo Hinkov, during a blitz control at the Health Commission. The hypothesis of such a radical change was expressed in a questioning tone, after the MP from “Vazrazhdane” Margarita Gencheva asked the minister whether he envisages obliging private hospitals to perform certain functions, for example in emergency care, which the state ones are unable to handle.
We see how some regional hospitals are slowly becoming state-owned because the state is buying their shares in an attempt to help them, explained the minister. Currently, on average, the state owns about 80% in these medical facilities. Either we ask the mayors to transfer the remaining shares to us, or we let them expire, because the doctors and nurses are the same and we cannot increase them, he added.
“It will come to a situation where some state hospitals will have to be closed. Can we remove them from the prohibition list for privatization and offer them to a private hospital chain? Can we offer them – buy the hospital in Vratsa? But respecting a a privatization contract that will oblige you to have all the medical structures that the regional hospital has been performing so far,” the minister developed this option. “Radical decisions must be made. Otherwise, we continue to pour in, buy out the shares and become the owner of these losing enterprises,” he explained.
“I’m very sorry to hear that. Much more is expected of you,” replied Gencheva. “This is an opportunity and it is posed as a question, it may appear before us,” the minister pointed out. It is difficult to fight the expansion of private capital and private management, which attracts the same contingent of medical personnel, he added, but stressed that a way must be found not to divide the medical profession into private and public, but to have all work for the patients.
When asked how the swarming of new and new hospitals will be limited, the minister clarified that the new health card being prepared will not aim to reduce beds, because their number is a positive criterion and does not imply the introduction of a ceiling. “Permissions for new hospitals can be suspended both through accreditation and through the NHIF’s own assessment of its financial capabilities. If the treasury can refuse a contract outside of those described in the health card, then we will have a real brake on having, for example, in Stara Zagora a new hospital with 700 beds, as the address of Pleven’s “Heart and Brain”, explained Prof. Hinkov. He is referring to a “Trade League” project announced last year, which already has the green light from the local municipal council. Similarly, there was a project for a large hospital in Kazichene, which is a branch of the same chain in Pleven.
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2023-09-07 17:50:13
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