On 17 March 2023, the Croatian Parliament accepted Amendments to the Health Care Act as part of the ongoing health reform.
The amended Health Care Act introduces new concepts such as:
- Integration of care (across levels of health care, as well as between health and social care), which will later be specified in a rulebook on integration.
- The complex patient, understood as a patient who suffers from mutually aggravating conditions. Patient complexity is seen as consisting of medical, socioeconomic, and/or psychological factors specific to the person that interfere with the provision of usual care and decision-making regarding a patient’s condition.
- A 24/7/365 care model, referring to the provision of comprehensive, continuous and coordinated care in different settings and from different care providers for the entire duration of the health need taking into account social needs as well.
- A hospital without walls concept that includes care provision, management, and monitoring, regardless of the health care setting and including hospitals, nursing homes, and home care.
Moreover, the new Health Care Act aim to strengthen primary health care by:
- establishing one health centre per county and strengthening its role as the fundamental provider of primary health care;
- strengthening the coordination and integration of long-term care activities within the health centre and with other stakeholders in health care, social care, as well as patients and their caregivers; and
- strengthening specialized secondary-level care outside of hospitals and within health centres.
This aims to provide easier access to health services, reduce the burden on the hospital system, and shorten waiting times.
Third, the amendments aim to strengthen the hospital system and improve their management by transferring ownership of general hospitals from counties to the state. This change aims to achieve financial sustainability by strengthening business control mechanisms at the national and regional level, and increasing skill requirements for the management teams of health institutions.
For more information on the Health Care Act (in Croatian) see: