The hospital in Zwolle and Meppel must raise 23 million euros from somewhere in the coming year. That is currently the financial shortage that Isala is facing, the hospital confirmed after questions from the Overijssel broadcaster.
The red figures have various causes, says spokesperson Eveline Henneke. “We are faced with significant inflation, large collective labor agreement effects and incomplete compensation for this by insurers. We also know that our budgets will become tighter in the coming years due to the Integrated Care Agreement (IZA).
She also points out that Isala has been assigned more and more ‘special, top clinical positions’ in recent years. “We are doing very well and we still have many ambitions and plans to do even better. This always requires significant investments, and therefore further improvement of our financial result.”
In addition, the money is also needed for necessary maintenance of buildings and medical equipment.
Isala will have to make cuts to turn the financial picture black. According to the hospital, opportunities for savings are always looked at, “because the growth of healthcare costs is a major social challenge”. But it is clear that new, additional austerity measures will be announced before the end of the year.
Forced dismissals are not part of this, Isala emphasizes. There is already a temporary vacancy freeze for ‘supporting positions’. According to spokesperson Henneke, additional measures will be about “increasing efficiency, improving processes, saving on materials and combating waste”.
Employees will start to notice this. “That will have an impact, but we can handle that together.”
Exactly how the hospital will make cuts to eliminate the 23 million euro deficit is still being discussed. “We are currently carefully looking at the options to keep our organization financially healthy. The decision-making process is now being finalized. We will then first inform our own employees.”
Isala has always made a profit over the past four years. In 2019 that was about 9 million euros, a year later more than 20 million. The hospital also added approximately 7.5 million euros in 2021 (17 million) and last year. Isala already predicted in the last annual accounts that costs would rise considerably in the future.
Isala is not the only hospital experiencing financial problems. The Dutch Association of Hospitals predicted at the end of last year that 90 percent of hospitals would make a loss this year. For example, it recently emerged that the HagaZiekenhuis will be short of 20 million euros this year, and that the Flevoziekenhuis and VieCuri (Venlo) are also experiencing significant financial problems.