The Ministry of Finance wants to return hospitals to treasury accounts: the Rada warns of negative consequences
12 November 11:57
The Ministry of Finance intends to transfer hospitals to treasury accounts from March 1, 2025. This is provided for in the draft Law on the State Budget of Ukraine for 2025. This was reported by Olha Stefanyshyna, MP from the Spravedlyvist party, member of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on National Health, Komersant ukrainskyi reports
The MP reminded that on October 30, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine rejected the proposal of the Ministry of Finance to return hospitals to treasury accounts in the State Budget-2025.
However, in the second reading, this initiative was again submitted for consideration. Stefanyshyna believes that this is not only a step backward for the medical system, but also an attempt to return hospitals to the state’s manual control, which threatens to destroy the financial autonomy and stability that has been gained.
“On October 30, the Parliament rejected the proposal of the Ministry of Finance to transfer Ukrainian hospitals to treasury accounts in the State Budget 2025. So, they just didn’t care about our opinion. And for the 2nd reading, this provision is back. Because someone really wants to manage hospitals manually,” the MP wrote.
Stefanyshyna notes that the return of hospitals to treasury control could have catastrophic consequences for their development and ability to respond quickly to challenges, especially during martial law.
“Hospitals are already working in extremely difficult conditions, and to return them to dependence on the Ministry of Finance is a huge harm. This will destroy the financial autonomy of hospitals, stop their development, and deprive them of the ability to respond quickly to the challenges of martial law,” explains Stefanyshyna.
The financial autonomy of hospitals gained in recent years allows medical institutions to plan and allocate funds independently, ensuring timely payment of medical staff and improved conditions for patients. According to Stefanyshyna, the return of hospitals to treasury accounts will lead to regular delays in paying salaries to medical staff and paying for patient services.
“As a result, there will be regular delays in the payment of salaries to healthcare workers and payment for services to patients!” the MP said.
Stefanyshyna called on her colleagues in the Rada and the public to join their efforts to finally reject this initiative during the final vote.
Earlier, the Ministry of Finance explained that the transfer of the accounts of healthcare providers to the Treasury will not change the course of the healthcare reform and will not affect the autonomy of institutions in managing their funds.
“The state will not influence the spending of funds by healthcare providers. Currently, the National Health Service of Ukraine transfers funds under the medical guarantees program from the treasury account to the bank accounts of hospitals. That is, the funds are transferred from the unified state treasury account and kept on accounts in banking institutions. The amount of such funds amounts to more than UAH 22 billion per month,” the statement said.
The Ministry of Finance noted that in the conditions of war and the criticality of maintaining the liquidity of the single state treasury account, keeping funds received under the medical guarantee program in bank accounts does not contribute to the financial stability of the state.
In late September, the medical and patient communities warned of a possible collapse of the medical system in 2025 due to the new state budget.
In early October, the Committee on National Health, Medical Assistance and Health Insurance recommended removing the provision on transferring medical institutions to non-budgetary accounts of the Treasury from the draft state budget for 2025.
