More and more people feel the problems of the public healthcare system first-hand and these challenges are increasingly being recognised by politicians. The need for public intervention was recognised, plans were made, and the government has taken the first steps. But meanwhile, masses of patients are seeking and finding solutions: increasingly in the private health sector. By today, the situation has evolved to the point that private healthcare providers are not only becoming stronger because an ever-widening range of people are choosing private institutions in growing numbers generating more visits but also because the largest service providers are able to offer high-quality and complex interventions in certain care settings. But where and how far will public intervention go? Will publicly funded healthcare be able to develop in the short term? Will the government intervene directly with the operating conditions of the private market as they attempted at the end of 2022? How can the struggle for human resources continue? How will the planned interventions affect the freedom of private healthcare service providers in 2023 and 2024? How will private healthcare companies react to all of this? What paths do they have ahead of them and can consolidation speed up this year due to this? It is clearly visible that the two sectors can no longer exist without each other so these aspects will be in the focus of the seventh Private Health Forum’s programme, providing space for key actors and decision-makers of both sectors. In addition, we will naturally ask the most burning questions about artificial intelligence, digitalisation, pricing and telemedicine while also discussing one of the most important topics: based on what patients decide and where they get information from.
