Three quarters of Brussels hospitals face major financial issues

Three out of four Brussels hospitals are unable to pay their bills, according to the federation representing all of the city's care institutions, Gibbis, following the annual national study on the sector by Belfius.

Accumulated losses for hospital in Brussels reached €86 million in 2023, Bruzz reports, with care facilities in the capital making up 27% of unpaid hospital bills in Belgium.

The federation also points to previous studies that estimated that 37.6% of the Brussels population is at risk of poverty or social exclusion – more than double the national average.

“This context is reflected in Brussels hospitals, which take care of a large proportion of socially vulnerable patients,” Gibbis said.

“This care is often more complex and expensive, requires more intensive social support and increases the risk of unpaid bills.”

The organisation is therefore asking policymakers to “recognise the specificities of large cities at the federal level and consider their impact on Brussels healthcare institutions and their financing”.

Gibbis publishes its analysis synchronously with the annual national study by Belfius, which says that hospitals are becoming more financially fragile year by year and the sector is at a tipping point. Of the 89 general hospitals in Belgium, 34 (almost four in 10) closed the year 2023 in the red.

“It’s clear that the Belgian hospital sector is becoming more financially fragile year after year,” Belfius economists noted.

“Over the last 10 years, hospitals’ operating income has been under increasing pressure. The financial basis is too weak to make the necessary investments in the sector. It also doesn’t protect hospitals in the face of the slightest setback.”

In addition to higher rates of poverty in the Belgian capital than elsewhere in the country, heavy pension costs in public hospitals make the situation of Brussels hospitals even more dire than elsewhere, Gibbis warned, compromising the maintenance and necessary transformation of hospital infrastructure.

“Without investment and support for reforms, it will become increasingly difficult to guarantee quality care that is accessible to all,” Gibbis general director Karel Van De Sompel said.