Montenegro Hospital Privatisation Plan Angers Doctors
Montenegro Hospital Privatisation Plan Angers Doctors
The Montenegrin doctors’ union said government plans to allow foreign private companies to manage public hospitals mean that profit will be put before people’s health.
The Montenegrin Health Ministry has dismissed criticism by the Union of Medics, which claims that public healthcare in the country will be subjected to the whims of the free market after the government announced plans to ask private companies to manage healthcare institutions.
“That is untrue and incorrect information about the health system in Montenegro,” the ministry said on Tuesday in response to the union’s claims.
The union had argued that Montenegro has the worst public healthcare in Europe and that was the only country in the world that intends to offer its healthcare system to the free market.
“This means that people will have as much healthcare as they can afford to pay for,” the Union of Medics said on Tuesday.
The union made its statement after the company a Malta-based Global Healthcare Vitals, VGH, announced its interest in obtaining a concession contract for managing several public health institutions in the coastal towns of Kotor, Budva and Herceg Novi.
The doctors also expressed anger after the Montenegrin authorities on Friday again delayed the adoption of a new law to increase the wages in the healthcare system.
“Not adopting legislation that would increase the earnings of doctors… tells us that the Montenegrin health care system, unfortunately, is already finished,” the union said.
The union also said that according to the latest Euro Consumer index, Montenegro has “the most backward health system in Europe” and allocates only five per cent of its budget to healthcare, while the European average is eight to 12 per cent.
The Euro Consumer index ranks healthcare systems in Europe according to 48 indicators, including patients’ rights, accessibility, prevention and outcomes. It put Montenegro at the bottom of the rankings for 2016.
The same research showed that Montenegro has the lowest number of doctors per capita in Europe, the lowest doctors’ salaries in relation to GDP and the worst medical education in Europe, as well as poor working conditions.
This spring, the Montenegrin healthcare system faced its worst-ever financial crisis after the state was not able to afford to buy basic supplies and equipment to ensure public hospitals worked properly.
Under growing pressure from the media and patients’ rights’ organisations, the state Health Insurance Fund admitted in April that it could not launch a tender for the procurement of basic medical supplies because the state had allocated only five million euros for all public hospitals for 2016 – almost three times less than what is needed this year.
Since then, the Health Ministry has been searching forpossible models for the transformation of the public health system, including private-public partnerships or granting concessions.
Meanwhile, the VGH company said it could invest 375 million euros in healthcare in Montenegro if it gets the concession agreement to build three new hospitals in Budva and Kotor, to manage some of the public hospitals in the northern region and to “educate and train medical staff” across Montenegro.
The company, which currently manages three public hospitals in Malta through a public-private partnership, said the transformation of public hospitals in Montenegro could begin as early as the beginning of next year.
Read more at: http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/plan-to-privatise-hospitals-sparks-union-anger-in-montenegro-10-04-2016#sthash.exHLPP3F.dpuf
