Soaring Czech Hospital Drug Bills Prompt Concern

According to drug industry groups in the Czech Republic, the debts owed by public hospitals to drugmakers have risen sharply this year. While outstanding payments totalled only US$18mn in June 2004, this figure has now reached over US$45mn.

The increase comes despite earlier government promises to eradicate the debt by April 2005. However, with debts 44% higher year-on-year since the start of 2005, insurers, pharmacists and drug producers are openly questioning the sustainability of the hospitals' debt burden.

In recent years, the Czech health authorities have sought a number of measures to restrain public sector drug spending, including the introduction of a positive list for hospitals. Notably however, much of the hospitals' debt is attributed to spending on cancer drugs, as the country adopts an increasingly Western European-style disease profile and levels of health awareness among the general population are continuing to rise sharply.