**Flemish hospitals plunge into the red next year: ‘I fear some hospitals could go go under’**
**Almost 8 out of 10 Flemish hospitals will plunge into the red in 2023. This emerges from a Zorgnet-Icuro survey of Flemish hospitals. The main reason is growing energy costs. “I fear that some hospitals could go go under”, said director Margot Cloet.**
Budget preparation is a difficult exercise for Flemish hospitals this year, says Margot Cloet, managing director of the Zorgnet-Icuro. That is the umbrella organization of all Flemish hospitals. For all hospitals together, the umbrella organization sees a negative operating result of 114 million euros. That is 300 million less than two years earlier. The dome estimates that in 2023 it will decrease further by almost half a billion euros.
A survey by the umbrella, in which about half of Flemish hospitals participated, shows that eight in 10 hospitals will go into the red next year. For Brussels and Wallonia, that percentage would be higher. “Those hospitals have less margins than the Flemish ones,” Zorgnet-Icuro announced in a press release.
The main reason is rising energy costs. “For Flanders together, we estimate the increase in energy expenses at 191 million euros,” writes Zorgnet-Icuro. For the whole country together, there would be an increase of 309 million euros. “Hospitals are large consumers,” Cloet explains. “Other expenses, such as medication, have also increased. This is due to inflation and the war in Ukraine.”
**Federal compensation**
The situation is worrisome, says director Cloet. “Hospitals will have to draw from their reserves. We are afraid that hospitals will cut their investments as a result. These are necessary to innovate and meet government and patient expectations.” According to an analysis by the bank Belfius, investments have already fallen by 40 percent between 2018 and 2021.
The federal government is therefore providing 80 million euros in energy offsets for all Belgian hospitals for the first half of 2023. “That will be more than insufficient to cover the cost of energy,” said Cloet. “We are going to have to enter into discussions with the government.”
In exchange for those compensations, the hospitals already had to make a concession. “The hospitals have already had to freeze one-year honorarium supplements,” Cloet says. “They are also not allowed to increase the single room supplements. We take contributions from that to reduce the hospitals’ costs. It’s not desirable for rising costs to fall on patients, but it seems the hospitals have no other way to go. If there is no butter to the fish, I fear some hospitals may go over head.”
This has been happening for years now. The smaller hospitals can cope with the cost needed to run a modern healthcare facility and now the energy aspect is used to make it public.
Just merge … the examples from outside the country are countless. Hospitals just need to face the fact that the crazy costs needed are better taken up as a group.
So many hospitals have merged over the last years in Belgium and these big groups do make a nice profit if run properly.
Investments have already fallen. Isn’t that what Belgium is like? A country that fails to invest because of current expenses that keep going up and eat into the budget. Resulting in even fewer investments and so on..
Look at our military as an example. So out healthcare system is next. Just great.
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**Flemish hospitals plunge into the red next year: ‘I fear some hospitals could go go under’**
**Almost 8 out of 10 Flemish hospitals will plunge into the red in 2023. This emerges from a Zorgnet-Icuro survey of Flemish hospitals. The main reason is growing energy costs. “I fear that some hospitals could go go under”, said director Margot Cloet.**
Budget preparation is a difficult exercise for Flemish hospitals this year, says Margot Cloet, managing director of the Zorgnet-Icuro. That is the umbrella organization of all Flemish hospitals. For all hospitals together, the umbrella organization sees a negative operating result of 114 million euros. That is 300 million less than two years earlier. The dome estimates that in 2023 it will decrease further by almost half a billion euros.
A survey by the umbrella, in which about half of Flemish hospitals participated, shows that eight in 10 hospitals will go into the red next year. For Brussels and Wallonia, that percentage would be higher. “Those hospitals have less margins than the Flemish ones,” Zorgnet-Icuro announced in a press release.
The main reason is rising energy costs. “For Flanders together, we estimate the increase in energy expenses at 191 million euros,” writes Zorgnet-Icuro. For the whole country together, there would be an increase of 309 million euros. “Hospitals are large consumers,” Cloet explains. “Other expenses, such as medication, have also increased. This is due to inflation and the war in Ukraine.”
**Federal compensation**
The situation is worrisome, says director Cloet. “Hospitals will have to draw from their reserves. We are afraid that hospitals will cut their investments as a result. These are necessary to innovate and meet government and patient expectations.” According to an analysis by the bank Belfius, investments have already fallen by 40 percent between 2018 and 2021.
The federal government is therefore providing 80 million euros in energy offsets for all Belgian hospitals for the first half of 2023. “That will be more than insufficient to cover the cost of energy,” said Cloet. “We are going to have to enter into discussions with the government.”
In exchange for those compensations, the hospitals already had to make a concession. “The hospitals have already had to freeze one-year honorarium supplements,” Cloet says. “They are also not allowed to increase the single room supplements. We take contributions from that to reduce the hospitals’ costs. It’s not desirable for rising costs to fall on patients, but it seems the hospitals have no other way to go. If there is no butter to the fish, I fear some hospitals may go over head.”
(Mostly)Translated with http://www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
This has been happening for years now. The smaller hospitals can cope with the cost needed to run a modern healthcare facility and now the energy aspect is used to make it public.
Just merge … the examples from outside the country are countless. Hospitals just need to face the fact that the crazy costs needed are better taken up as a group.
So many hospitals have merged over the last years in Belgium and these big groups do make a nice profit if run properly.
Investments have already fallen. Isn’t that what Belgium is like? A country that fails to invest because of current expenses that keep going up and eat into the budget. Resulting in even fewer investments and so on..
Look at our military as an example. So out healthcare system is next. Just great.
I’m sure a lot off accidents are about to happen.
Time to look at some of the excessive honoraria?