Prof. Gabrić on medical tourism: “Most private healthcare is in the public sector”

Zagreb, September 27, 2017 – “Croatian Tourism 2027” was the title of a conference organized by Jutarnji list, bringing together representatives of the government and the public and private sectors to discuss the challenges and prospects of medical tourism in Croatia.

Minister of Tourism Gari Capelli emphasized that he was aware of the problems hindering the development of medical tourism and noted that this was the first government to allocate funds to promote Croatia as a medical tourism destination. “Tomorrow, the government will consider a new Tourism Services Act, which will soon be submitted to Parliament. It will enable tourism professionals to engage in healthcare-related activities, meaning that agencies will be able to offer medical tourism packages. By the end of the year, amendments to the Healthcare Act will also be introduced, allowing healthcare institutions to engage in tourism-related activities,” said the Minister of Tourism. “The formula for successful medical tourism lies in the synergy of public-private partnerships, sustainable development and destination management,” the minister concluded.

“There are people who develop and create tourism, and there is a state that is slow and bureaucratic and does not create the conditions necessary for tourism to develop,” responded Prof. Nikica Gabrić, MD, PhD.“Everywhere in the world, this is a serious business, and medical tourism should be the jewel in the golden necklace known as our beautiful sea, beautiful country, agriculture, culture and sport—all of these together make up a country’s identity,” Gabrić added. He said that we cannot expect better results as long as we continue to create the perception of Croatia that we do and as long as the state manages things it does not know how to manage.

As an example, he cited health resorts owned by counties, cities and municipalities. “Let’s privatize them and leave 25% of their capacity operating under contracts with the Croatian Health Insurance Fund (HZZO), while putting everything else on the market, because those managing them lack the passion to change anything in this country,” Gabrić concluded, receiving a strong round of applause. “This does not apply only to the current government. We replaced socialism with Marxism with social realism with religious education,” he added, arguing that Croatia does not currently have a truly private healthcare sector because the largest private healthcare activity takes place within the state healthcare system.

He cited data indicating that 10 private healthcare institutions in Croatia generate approximately HRK 600 million in annual revenue, which he considers a relatively small business, attributing this to the state tolerating private practice within public hospitals in order to prevent doctors from leaving. “That is soft corruption that is destroying society,” Prof. Gabrić claimed.

“We have fallen behind societies that are moving forward, and we are falling behind because we constantly have paper dragons in which the illiterate are teaching the literate. We must develop people who have knowledge and prove themselves in practice. We have outstanding doctors who create the appearance of European and global-level medicine, but they do not have the space to develop because the state does not encourage it. The path to successful medical tourism lies in the privatization of healthcare,” concluded Prof. Gabrić, Founder and Owner of Svjetlost.

Dr. Schwartz from Radiochirurgia Polyclinic believes that marketing is the driving force behind medical tourism. “For foreign patients to come to us, we need to offer them the same or better conditions and bear in mind that their insurers want to pay as little as possible and save money,” he said, adding that his institution does not currently have the capacity to expand further into the European market.

“We have not yet established a destination value chain. We need to work on branding—on how the world perceives us and what it thinks of us,” said Jadranka Primorac of St. Catherine Special Hospital.

Dr. Pezo of the Croatian Chamber of Dental Medicine believes that attention must also be paid to the capacity available to provide services to foreign tourists without this coming at the expense of Croatia’s healthcare system.

Marcel Medak, Director of Daruvar Spa, also supported privatization as a means of developing medical tourism. “All our publicly owned special hospitals are currently operating positively, but imagine what the results could be if we resolved ownership issues, invested in them and focused more strongly on the market,” said Medak.

The panel discussion also addressed the topic of health insurance. “We need to raise awareness of the need for people to protect and insure their health,” Prof. Gabrić said, arguing that the current system favors the state insurer and does not provide an opportunity for the development of the private health insurance industry or for improving the quality and competitiveness of services.

“It does not matter who owns the institution, but whether a high-quality service is provided,” he concluded, adding that we are still not aware that foreign healthcare shopping centers are waiting at our doorstep to enter the Croatian market. “The state has no answer to this, and I am afraid that our doctors will soon become poorly paid employees of foreign companies, just as they are now poorly paid employees of the state healthcare system,” Gabrić said, adding that “Svjetlost” is the only chain of healthcare institutions operating outside Croatia.