Government unveils EUR 242m health-care package

The government is providing hospitals with a 79.4 billion forint (EUR 242m) financing package with a view to improving health care and reducing hospital debt, Gergely Gulyás, the head of the Prime Minister’s Office, told a regular government press briefing on Thursday.

Fully 36.6 billion forints will be ploughed into modernisation projects and 15.7 billion will go towards outpatient services. Altogether 17.7 billion forints will benefit inpatient hospital care. Also, 3.15 billion forints will be spent on expanding the range of drugs for treating genetic defects.

Further, the government will centralise the 42.8 billion forints of remaining hospital debt.

The government will not simply take over the debt but negotiate it centrally, making sure that billed services are justified, he said. The finance ministry has appointed a financial supervisor for 13 hospitals whose finances are especially precarious. The aim, he said, is to avoid similar situations in the future by setting stricter management enforcement rules.

Gulyás said that maintaining state inpatient care had been a good move since this has kept a lid on debt.

Meanwhile, on the topic of education, he said no changes to the national curriculum had been adopted that would have justified drafting new legislation wholesale, so amendment proposals will be presented to parliament. The details will be refined over the next two weeks, he added.