Pointing to insufficient funding, Eastern Hospital management warns of scheduled service reduction / day

As emphasized in the report, the amount of losses reflects a significant non -compliance between public funding and the real health care costs.

The hospital’s financial situation remains difficult during the reporting period, as the hospital has significantly reduced funding for state -funded services for 2025, the hospital management said in a report.

Funding for inpatient services has been reduced by EUR 10.2 million on the year, including € 6.1 million for diagnosis -related group services, reducing the average cost of one patient by 190 euros, which « is the highest reduction in all inpatient medical institutions ».

Similarly, funding has been reduced above the contract amount for the payment of services in accordance with the terms of the contract by EUR 4.6 million, including a reduction of EUR 1.7 million for reduced services to the Ukrainian population in connection with the Russian invasion.

Funding for EUR 1.2 million has been reduced for complicated primary oncooperation, expenses for the maintenance of intensive care beds by reducing the volume of services, reducing the amount of services, and the management of the hospital will be reduced by 0.8 million euros. Outpatient services were also reduced by EUR 0.8 million, reducing their volume.

The amount of laboratory services has also been reduced, with a total reduction in these services by EUR 0.5 million.

The amount of revenue of the reporting period has also been further influenced by the changes in payment of payment from the National Health Service (NHS) from 1 January this year, thus the revenue of the reporting period has a total of EUR 2.2 million.

There is no effect on the payment of the contract amount in accordance with the terms of the contract, as these services were paid for in accordance with the amount actually provided, but there is a topical question of what the NHS’s actions will be at the time of reaching the amount specified in the financial statement.

The report mentions that 15,552 patients were treated and prescribed hospital in the hospital during the three months, respectively, the number of inpatient patients has not changed significantly compared to the corresponding period of 2024 – it has decreased by 0.2% or 26 patients.

Meanwhile, hospital emergency medical and patient admission clinic turned 6.8% of patients over the three months of 2024, and the number of such patients reached nearly 21,000 patients.

The hospital did not pay approximately EUR 1.5 million for the services provided in the three months of the reporting period, including EUR 0.4 million for inpatient program services, EUR 0.3 million for outpatient services, EUR 0.3 million for laboratory services, and EUR 0.5 million for Covid-19.

In the view of RAKUS management, the situation shows a systemic problem – the hospital provides assistance outside the initially planned funding, but does not receive adequate payment for these services.

Just as last year, fund security was not sufficient for programs that have submitted tariff requests in recent years, but accepting them from the NHS has not been due to lack of funding, RAKUS said.

Microsurgery caused the greatest losses, which in the first half of the year suffered a loss of EUR 0.6 million.

Also, the cost of feeding patients is not compensated for the actual costs that the hospital pays for the catering provider.

In addition to raising the minimum wage in the country, the amount of services agreed on the amount of service contracts, the indexation of which is intended for the increase of indexes set by the CSB, such as catering, security, room and area cleaning.

During the reporting period, patients’ demand for services provided by the hospital increased and, in order to compensate for the funding deficit, RAKUS increased the amount of paid health care services by nearly EUR 0.5 million, or 34% compared to the corresponding period of 2024. This has allowed « partially providing mission and maintaining the availability of services ».

In order to adapt to the limited funding, the average number of bed days is reduced by introducing improvements in the treatment process, which helps to reduce the cost of residence and to further make the increasing treatment of patients in 2025, the report states.

The amount of medical goods and medications per patient is also reduced to reduce the effects of significant medications and medical goods, according to the hospital.

However, according to the hospital management, these measures are not sufficient to balance the hospital budget. In order to ensure financially balanced operation in 2025, RAKUS will be « forced to reduce » planned services, which will have a significant impact on the availability of services, the report said.

At the end of the reference, the position is expressed – to ensure sustainable development and to prevent similar situations in the future, significant changes in regulatory framework and health care financing model are needed.