Europe 1 with AFP // Credits: Thomas COEX / AFP 3:59 p.m., February 16, 2024
The government announced this Friday that it would release “exceptional aid” of 500 million euros to “support” health establishments in financial difficulty. Aid which comes when 40% of establishments were in deficit in 2023.
The government announced on Friday that it would release "exceptional aid" of 500 million euros to "support" health establishments in financial difficulty and also "return" 470 million credits entered in the social security budget for 2023 and "not consumed”. “The President of the Republic and the Prime Minister have repeatedly recalled the priority they wish to give to our health system” and today want to “support establishments in the difficulties they encounter”, wrote in a press release the Ministry of Labor, Health and Solidarity.
The executive therefore decided, on the one hand, "to grant exceptional aid of 500 million euros to public and private establishments for the year 2023" and, on the other hand, to "return" to establishments under endowment (public and private non-profit) “470 million euros of unused credits” provided for in the social security budget voted for 2023. This is not “inflation aid” but rather “aid to support establishments whose activity has progressed in 2023 but whose financial situation is weakened,” the Ministry of Health told AFP. The exceptional aid will be distributed by the regional health agencies (ARS).
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Hospital: alert on the deficit of university hospitals which has “tripled in one year”
40% of establishments in deficit in 2023
Public and private health establishments have continued to warn in recent months about the deterioration of their accounts. Hospitals in all sectors (public, private, private non-profit, cancer centers, home hospitalization) are demanding 1.5 billion euros from the government to compensate for inflation in 2023.
The federation of private hospitals affirmed at the end of January that “40% of establishments (were) in deficit” in 2023, compared to 24% in 2021. The 32 university hospital centers (CHU, public) recently warned of their cumulative deficit which reached the end of 2023 some 1.2 billion euros, or three times more than in 2022. The support announced on Friday “is in addition to the 388 million credits put in reserve and paid to hospitals at the end of 2023”, specifies the press release from the ministry.