“40% of our clinics will find themselves in deficit in 2023, this is unheard of”

2024-02-19 11:00:07
In the intensive care unit of the Elsan private hospital – Clinique Oceane in Vannes, in April 2021. LOIC VENANCE / AFP

Lamine Gharbi, president of the Federation of Private Hospitalization, which has 1,030 private for-profit clinics and hospitals, is worried regarding an unprecedented deficit which also affects his sector, due to inflation. He calls on the State to compensate these costs, and regrets “treatment dichotomy” with the public sector which he considers unjustified.

You have been warning regarding the degraded finances of clinics for several months, what is the situation?

In 2023, 40% of our private clinics and hospitals will find themselves in deficit, for 670 million euros, compared to 25% in previous years. This is unheard of. If nothing changes, this will be the case this year for half of our 1,030 establishments, which represent 19 billion in budget. The repercussions are already there. Surgery manages to remain in balance but there is everything else: closures or reductions in activity in emergencies, in obstetrics, in medical care and rehabilitation, the blocking of any extension in psychiatry…

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We have been waiting for months for a response from the State. We are asking at the very least that it “balances” the 2023 inflation, which is the cause of our difficulties. With the federation of public hospitals [la Fédération hospitalière de France], we estimated the necessary envelope at 1.5 billion euros. The Ministry of Health has just announced aid of 500 million euros, this can only be a first step, because it is well below the needs.

Unlike the public sector, your volume of activity is greater than expected in 2023. Have your resources not increased?

We have 400 million euros of “overexecution” budgetary [par rapport à ce qui était prévu dans l’objectif national de dépenses d’assurance-maladie]. We took care of patients who needed it, patients that the public might not care for, we played our complementary role. But we are penalized: because of inflation, the prices for this activity [que verse l’Etat aux établissements pour chaque groupe de patients et de séjours, dans le cadre de la tarification à l’activité qui représente 90 % des revenus du privé à but lucratif] absolutely do not cover our expenses. So the more we work, the more money we lose, it’s an unacceptable scissors effect! We urgently request a pricing campaign [la fixation des tarifs pour l’année 2024 par l’Etat, qui est décidée en mars] commensurate with the true costs for our establishments.

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