CONDEMNED TO ACCUMULATE RESERVES

New restrictive measures paralyze health institutions. The health institutions which have been ordered to accumulate reserves may get into greater difficulties than caused by the present restrictive measures. They may not use a significant part of their annual budget this year.

The government decision regulates the rescheduling of their payments. They are allowed to order the necessary service but they are not permitted to pay for them this year. The sequestered sums can be used only in next January. It is not yet known if the health care itself is affected by the measures. According to Lajos Ari, chairman of the Association of Leaders of Health Management this can cause a serious financial trouble and he expressed his opinion in a letter to Jenő Rácz, Minister of Health that such measures would deteriorate the competitiveness of the institutions selected to accumulate reserves. The National Ambulance Service has to accumulate HUF 100 million reserve while in the case of Semmelweis Medical University this sum is HUF 4 billion. The Health Strategic Research Institute has to reserve one-third of its annual budget, HUF 370 million but the measures affect the Nation Blood Supply Service, the National Health Insurance Fund, the State Public Health Office, and the national clinics like the National Oncological Institute.

Translated by Péter Szentmihályi Szabó