In accordance with the EU acts, the Croatian Public Procurement Act is in force since 1 January 2017, and will be fully operational from 1 July of the same year for all goods or services whose price is not already defined by a specific law or regulation. The criterion of the most economically advantageous tender becomes the exclusive criterion for the selection of tenderers for all goods or services whose price is not already defined by a particular law or regulation, with the price indication still having a crucial influence on the selection (up to 90 % of the tender offer), while other criteria defined by the contracting authority amount to a minimum of 10 % of the tender offer. Although, in principle, this is a very good solution for the state bodies’ procurement of goods and services, when it comes to the health sector, a number of problems emerge.
The Public Procurement Act is included in the legal framework governing rights and obligations within the health system involving patients, health and hospital administration, physicians, pharmacists and the pharmaceutical industry, and ultimately the fiscal impact on the state budget. When we talk about public procurement in healthcare, the law will have a positive impact on certain segments.
