The council of the UKC University Medical Centre in Maribor, the second largest hospital in Slovenia, expressed worry over the medical centre’s huge losses. In the first half of the year it generated losses of around 5,3 million euros. It owes an additional 5,5 million euros to its suppliers. The council was also very critical towards the proposed measures, which are supposed to pull the medical centre out of the red. The council has tasked the UKC management with a number of additional tasks and demands a more concrete recovery plan. By October it also expects a revised budget.
Germič: The management has not been informing us
The situation in Maribor’s UKC is ever more worrisome. Apart from its lack of staff and 85% worn out equipment, its losses continue to rise on a monthly basis. At the current rate, if things don’t change soon, UKC will build up over 10 million euros of losses. The president of the council, Ljubo Germič, said it was unacceptable that the council was finding out about these losses only now: "The management did not inform us about it and did not present any measures, which should have been adopted long before. The situation today might have been much different if it had done so."
But the blame for the more than 5 million euros of losses in the first half of the year, and the additional 5 milllon euros of debt, does not only fall on the hospital. During the heated debate with the councilors the head of UKC medical centre, Vojko Flis, who has been in charge of the hospital for only the last two and a half months, also pointed his finger towards the state: "The state has us registered in their books like a normal hospital, not as a university medical centre, and that is why they don’t pay us for many of our services. If the services we offered out patients were completely covered, then we really wouldn’t be talking about any losses today. According to our estimates, we haven’t been paid for nearly 6,6 million tertiary services, which are recorded and accounted differently than those performed by the UKC Ljubljana."
Members of the UKC Maribor council said they were not pleased with the prepared recovery plan – they labeled it as an essayistic wish list. The management has been given three weeks to amend it. The council has also tasked the management to come up with a revised budget. Both documents will be discussed next month when the new council is to convene.
Katarina Klep-Černejšek, Radio Slovenija; translated by K. J.