Gov't to pay some, not all, debts of Hungarian hospitals
On Thursday, however, Gergely Gulyás, Minister in charge of the Prime Minister's Office, said the government has earmarked HUF 42.8 bn for paying these debts, while hospitals could also use HUF 20 bn of the extra HUF 36.6 bn they received this year for patient care to repay some debts. Gulyás also talked about the personal responsibility of hospital directors, saying that any director found to have made serious errors in financial management will "naturally have to go".
This would leave about HUF 10 bn in debt unpaid. "The government will not assume the debts of hospitals but will rather begin centralised talks with the suppliers involved to make sure the products and services billed were genuine and justifies," Gulyás said on Thursday.
Most of the products and services in question were bought through public procurement procedures, the Hungarian Hospital Association said. The invoices are 300 days overdue on average and about HUF 10 bn of the debt is more than a year old. "Not recognising and not paying these debts raises the issue of insolvency on the part of the debtor," the association said, hinting at government bankruptcy.
