2024-07-18 03:03:20
And while “the situation is improving,” it could take 5 to 10 years to resolve the financial problems. On Wednesday, in the Seimas Health Affairs Committee, A. Šimaitis said that the hospital could even face insolvency without the help of the ministry. In January of this year, according to the data of relikisai.lt, the overdue debt to “Sodra” exceeded even 200 thousand euros.
According to the manager, at the moment, debts to suppliers alone amount to 5.8 million euros and grow by 0.5 million euros per month. Although we have managed to reach an agreement with the creditors for the time being, the negotiations are becoming more difficult with each passing day.
Officially, the institution suffered losses of 12.4 million euros last year, but the real financial situation is even more complicated.
According to A. Šimaitis, before the reorganization, there were over 20 million euros of unused money in the accounts of the three institutions, which were merged into a common subsidiary KUL. Today, not only are they gone, but more and more debt is accumulating.
In practice, the hospital experienced losses of 2.3 million euros per month in 2023. During the whole year – 28 million euros. Adding this year’s result, the losses already amount to around 33-35 million euros.
A. Šimaitis warns that in the next six months there is a threat that the salaries of the employees will be delayed.
At the same time, he emphasizes that the situation is improving. This year, the hospital received 11 percent for the services provided. more income than last year.
The director estimates that the hospital needs an additional 28 million euros. Then it would be able to ensure the development of medical services. However, even with this support, it would take up to 5 years for the hospital to break even financially.
If support is not received, A. Šimaitis says that the regulation of financial flows will take 7-10 years.
The Salary Dilemma
Vilma Stasiulienė, Deputy Director of the State Hospital Funds, confirms that the situation in the hospital is improving.
In the first quarter of this year, KUL lost 4 million euros.
But the rising costs are surprising. Costs for repairs this year, compared to 2023, KUL increased 8 times. Salaries began to rise especially rapidly in KUL. According to the data of health insurance funds, their growth was twice as high as that of the overall health care sector in Lithuania. In particular, the salaries of administrative employees grew.
However, A. Šimaitis says that this is simply an arithmetical error, and presents his figures that salaries in the hospital increased by less than 15 percent this year, and not by 50 percent or more, as claimed by the Health Insurance Funds.
The official statistics of “Sodra” show that the average salary in the Klaipėda branch of KUL in May was as much as 3,326 euros, in the Jūrininkų branch – 2,955 euros.
In practice, the situation has arisen that the highest salaries are paid in Klaipėda among all university hospitals in Lithuania.
The average salary at the Kaunas Hospital of the Lithuanian University of Health Sciences is 2,193 euros. Vilnius University Hospital, Santaras Clinics – 3,017 euros.
According to V. Stasiulienė, if the salaries of KUL were at least the same as those of the Klaipėda Republic Hospital (the average is about 2,500 euros), it would allow savings of about 14 million euros and, theoretically, the institution would already be working profitably.
J. Grebenkovienvė of the division of millions says that the ministry is ready to allocate almost 3 million euros to the hospital, which is needed for severance pay. During the second stage of KUL’s reorganization, about three hundred KUL employees quit their jobs in September for various reasons.
Additionally, it is promised to allocate KUL to the development of the information system.
“The information that appeared that the Ministry of Health Protection promises to allocate 4 million euros to create the information system of the Klaipėda University Hospital and to compensate the severance pay of the employees, reminds us of manipulation in the public space. This is not news as presented. This information has been known for a long time – SAM allocated 3.3 million a few months ago. EUR to develop the information system of the hospital”, says A. Šimaitis.
The Ministry emphasizes that over 50 million euros are provided through various programs, which KUL can apply for after preparing the relevant projects.
However, A. Šimaitis is convinced that a separate budget should have been provided for the KUL reform of such a scale.
The Ministry of Health admits that only now is a financial plan being prepared, which will be presented to the founders of KUL.
It is also publicly said that there must be a separate unit in the ministry to ensure the performance of the functions of the founder of the sick, because now it cannot be ensured due to the excessive workload. Chairman of the Seimas Health Affairs Committee, Antanas Matulas, doubts whether there is a legal basis to allocate separate funding to KUL.
“There is no such system in Lithuania – in our legal acts. Two hospital managers told me that if you give this hospital money without a reason, we will go to rallies,” said A. Matulas.
However, there is already talk in Klaipėda that the nurses of KUL Jūrininkai branch, who receive a lower salary than those who do the same job at KUL Klaipėda hospital branch, are ready to protest.
Many emphasize that such chaos at KUL was caused by signs of salary increases in Klaipėda University Hospital, which was then under the control of the Municipality, just before the reform.
As a result, STT had opened an investigation, but it was discontinued. The reason is that the current KUL management did not provide enough information. However, the Ministry of Health Protection is now being urged to contact the prosecutor’s office on this issue in order to protect the public interest.
2024-07-18 03:03:20