engleski

Leasing - A Specific Croatian Model of Privatization of State-owned Community Pharmacies

As a country in transition Croatia was faced with big challenges of the changes in the existing political and economical system. One of the key challenges was the transformation of ownership from state-owned into private property. Privatisation of the health care system was approached with utmost care because of the risk and serious concern that quick radical changes might jeopardise the existing quality of health care services. Therefore, a very specific privatisation model of the health care system was chosen, as the initial part – a model by which a Leasing Agreement was concluded by the working pharmacists for particular premises and equipment in the pharmacies, for a period of several years (temporally unlimited period). The deadline for privatisation of all state pharmacies by the leasing model was the end of 1999, and it was planned that between 1997 and 1999, about 33% of state pharmacies per year should be subject to privatisation. All employed pharmacists who had continually worked in a pharmacy for three years at least, participated in the leasing of the particular state pharmacy whereas leasing amount for the premises and equipment was determined by local government. The leasing of state pharmacies did not run in accordance with the anticipated scheme of terms, and the whole process is prolonged till the end of 2001. Among the key problems that slowed down the leasing procedure were and still are very hard business conditions for pharmacies due to recession and insolvency in the whole country and consequently in the whole health care system. Croatian pharmacists have accepted the prescribed privatisation model as a necessity and regard it only as the initial privatisation stage.

Community pharmacy; Privatization; Leasing model

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