HOW EFFECTIVE ARE THE HOSPITALS IN ROMANIA? AN ASSESSMENT OF SIX HOSPITAL UNITS IN THE WEST OF THE COUNTRY

31 December 2023


Authors
Author Sebastian MEZEI - "Lucian Blaga" University of Sibiu ORCID: 0000-0002-3138-871X
Page: 3
Abstract

It is known that Romania allocates the lowest amounts for health each year, relative to GDP, relative to the other member countries of the European Union, and we can speak of a chronic underfunding of the health system. Even though the percentage of GDP allocated to health is low, over time, the amounts spent on health have increased substantially, influenced by the growth of gross domestic product. However, although the amounts spent on health have been increasing in the last 11 years, the population's perception towards the Romanian health system is unsatisfactory, and the population does not always have access to quality or high-performance medical services. Almost half of the health expenditures in Romania are consumed by hospital units, and a quarter of the allocated budget is directed to pharmaceutical units and other providers of medical goods. The present work carries out a qualitative and quantitative research of the indicators of six hospital units in the west of the country, over a period of 11 years (2012 - 2022), with the aim of analyzing how efficiently the financial resources allocated to the analyzed hospital units are used. The conclusions of the present study show us that the majority proportion of expenditures in hospital units is represented by personnel expenses, respectively operation, and the budget available for capital expenditures remains at a very low level, which leads to the impossibility of ensuring the investments necessary to increase the quality of the medical services offered.

Keywords
health expenditure; financing of hospitals; efficiency of hospital units
References
N/A
Article
Article