Competition in Public Procurement in the Czech and Slovak Public Health Care Sectors

Abstract

Sustainability of health financing is a critical issue for all countries, especially now in the COVID-19 period. The final level of achievements of critical public health goals is connected not only with the efforts of the people involved, but also with the availability of funding to cover the costs of the actions needed. One of the “internal sources” providing more resources to cover public health care costs is effective public procurement in the health care sector. According to existing scientific literature, a low rate of competition represents one important factor that has a direct negative impact on the efficiency of public procurement. The aim of our article is to examine the degree of competitiveness of public procurement in the Czech and Slovak health care systems and its impact on the final price of a contract. The research fully attested the findings of those studies carried out so far – the higher the number of tenderers, the lower the final price, even in the Czech and Slovak health sectors. However, the average number of tenderers is only around two and in the Czech Republic for more than half of the tenders only one bid was submitted.