Health sector faces a 98 million RON deficit, temporarily covered with funds reallocated from within the health sector itself

The interim Minister of Health, Cseke Attila, announced on Wednesday that the Romanian healthcare system faces a funding shortfall of 98 million RON, which will be covered in the short term through internal reallocations from the ministry's budget.

According to the minister, the funds are needed to keep the system running: 36 million RON for the salaries of staff at Emergency Reception Units (UPU) under the Ministry of Health's authority, 20 million RON for the operational costs of these UPUs, 30 million RON for the operational costs of UPUs in hospitals under the authority of local administrative units, and 12 million RON for the running costs of ambulance services.

"Today we have a deficit of approximately 100 million RON for which we had to find solutions. To be precise, 98 million RON. This is the money needed to keep the healthcare system running — for salaries, for operational costs, for ambulance services, for emergency reception units," said Cseke Attila at a press conference, according to Agerpres.

Where the reallocated funds come from

The minister specified that 56 million RON will be redirected from other Ministry of Health programmes to cover the salaries and operational costs of UPUs in hospitals under the ministry's authority. A further 42 million RON will be reallocated for the operational costs of UPUs in hospitals under local authority jurisdiction and for the running of county ambulance services.

In concrete terms, the funds will be drawn as follows: 26 million RON from the HIV/AIDS Programme, 7 million RON from the Transfusion Safety Programme, and 3 million RON from the "Mother and Child" Programme.

"Temporary, emergency solutions"

Cseke Attila warned that the measure does not resolve the problem in the long term: "These are temporary, emergency solutions. This means that for these programmes, which had funding coverage for December, a solution will still need to be found for December." He explained that the 42 million RON earmarked for operational costs at UPUs, hospitals, and ambulance services will be drawn from the salary fund for resident doctors — a fund that will itself need to be topped up for December. "This is a solution that works in the short term, up until the end of October," the minister said.

According to Cseke Attila, the deficit can only be covered over a longer period by a fully empowered government capable of adopting a budget rectification.

Nearly one billion RON needed by year's end

The minister also said that he had held discussions this week with the President of CNAS, and that commitment credit allocations of over 600 million RON had been made for programmes managed by CNAS, ensuring their funding through to the end of October.

"If we are talking about the Ministry of Health, in order to secure funding for all programmes in November and December as well — with October covered through these reallocations — we need 980 million RON, which must likewise be secured through a budget rectification," explained Cseke Attila. He added that the 10% retention provided for under the state budget law can only be released through a budget rectification, and that for everything financed by the Ministry of Health, this retention amounts to nearly 500 million RON — roughly half of the total sum the ministry requires by the end of the year.