Croatia prepares plan aimed at rationalising hospital network

Functional merger of some hospitals and creation of a new network of health care institutions are envisaged in the 2014-2016 national plan for hospitals in Croatia, which the Croatian Health Ministry issued on its web site on Tuesday.

This purpose of the master-plan, which is now prepared for public consideration and will be on the parliament’s agenda, is to remove long-standing deficiencies in the functioning of the hospital system and stop the practice of introducing services in hospitals without a prior well-considered strategy, according to the ministry’s explanation.

The plan was elaborated by Counseil Sante, a French consulting company entirely dedicated to the health sector, which was chosen at the public competition and the price of the commissioned master-plan was EUR 200,000. The implementation of the plan is expected to make savings in the amount of 400 million kuna (EUR 52.5 million) in the three years.

The plan envisages the rationalisation of the current network of 31 health care institutions — clinical hospital centres, teaching hospitals, clinics and general hospitals — funded by the public sector, and this will be performed through the rationalisation of total hospital capacity. and through improvement of patient flow.

Currently, the number of beds called currative (accute) care beds is 15,507 which will be cut by about 5,000 to 10,510. The number of beds allocated for other functions of care such as day-care treatment is to increase from 2,421 to 3.409 in 2016, while the number of beds for rehabilitation, long-term care and palliative care is expected to increase from the current 828 to 2,372 in 2016.

The plan includes the definition of four regions covered by health-care planning: northern and central Croatia, Eastern Croatia, Southern Croatia and Western Croatia.

Of the 31 hospitals, 21 are to be merged

source of the article: http://dalje.com/en-croatia/croatia-prepares-plan-aimed-at-rationalising-hospital-network/503138