The coronavirus crisis weighs on hospital coffers. According to the French Hospital Federation (FHF), the Covid-19 epidemic has resulted in additional costs for public hospitals at this stage, estimated at between 600 and 900 million euros, linked in particular to the purchase of protective equipment.
"All the regions and all the establishments were not affected in the same way" but the virus led to "very high levels of expenditure", underlined Cécile Chevance, head of the finance division of the FHF, during a videoconference. "For the first two months of the epidemic, we are at an additional cost estimated between 600 and 900 million euros," she added, referring in particular to the case of "some university hospitals in the Grand-Est", where expenses soared “several million euros”.
The financial balance of hospitals very disturbed
In question: the investments necessary to equip beds in intensive care, buy protective equipment, tests, drugs, or even pay the additional hours of nursing staff and staff who come in for reinforcement. In addition to these additional costs, there are also losses of revenue linked to the deprogramming of procedures and the drop in patient numbers for pathologies other than the coronavirus, according to the FHF.
In this context, it is “important to secure the cash flow of establishments” in the “short, medium and long term”, underlined Cécile Chevance, by estimating that hospitals should not be “penalized by taking charge of Covid ". In a note on the “deconfinement strategy” addressed to the health authorities, the FHF thus claims “financial guarantees” to “compensate for the additional costs and loss of revenue” and “guarantee 100% coverage of Covid + stays” . "This guarantee is necessary so that support, which must be set up over time, is not disturbed by budgetary considerations", insisted during the videoconference Frédéric Valletoux, president of the FHF.
An emergency envelope
The Ministry of Health said last week that the budget for hospitals and clinics would be supplemented by "a first exceptional emergency envelope" of 377 million euros to settle "specific expenses" to the epidemic of Covid-19 .
These credits are in addition to the 84.4 billion euros of hospital spending voted for 2020 and for which "a funding guarantee has been put in place," the ministry said. This guarantee must however be specified by ministerial decree.
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