Ekaterine Kavtaradze, Deputy Head of Evex Hospitals declares that the company is working on a model to get out of certain components of Universal Healthcare. Kavtaradze notes that amid the economic crisis, citizens’ expenditures will increase, in order to avoid that it is necessary to listen to the private sector and the Ministry of Health must specify the time of public work on the topic.
"We do not know when the decision will be made. The ministry said that an inventory should be made in the sector. However, we are not informed about the details and it is not easy for the business.
When the universal health care program was introduced in our country, there was such an agreement with the private sector that the minimum tariffs would be applied in the hospital sector at that time. These are the rates at which clinics are involved in universal healthcare.
After that, universal healthcare provided a format that if any of the tariffs were not cost-effective, the Ministry would revise the tariff. However, despite our many efforts, it did not happen at any stage.
The second issue was that tariffs should be revised from 2019 and brought in line with the existing economic indicators. However, this did not happen. The private sector prepared its visions on this, there were also meetings with the Ministry. If we take only 2019-2021, due to the devaluation of the GEL, in 2021 the costs of medicines and consumables have increased by 18 million GEL, "- said Kavtaradze.
