Hospitals used funds allocated for recovery from the COVID-19 crisis to purchase equipment they did not need and hardly ever used
PRESS RELEASE ON AUDIT NO 25/07 – 25 May 2026
Between 2020 and 2023, the Czech Republic received funds from the European REACT-EU investment instrument to support recovery from the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Czech government decided that most of these funds would be used for healthcare projects. Among other things, the aim was to strengthen the resilience and preparedness of key hospitals in the Czech Republic for potential threats. According to the SAO, the projects contributed only to a limited extent to achieving the set goal, and the funds were partly spent ineffectively and inefficiently. The SAO’s audit revealed that hospitals used the funding to purchase equipment they did not need or for which they lacked sufficient qualified staff to operate, and they hardly used it at all.
“The funding represented an unprecedented opportunity to take the Czech healthcare system to the next level. Our audit showed that the Czech Republic failed to take advantage of this opportunity,” said Roman Sklenák, Member of the SAO Board who led the audit.
Because the funds had to be spent in less than three years, the ministries prioritised the purchase of equipment and supplies over investments that would have led to a qualitative improvement in emergency response capabilities. The Ministry of Health (MoH) and the Ministry of Regional Development (MoRD) provided a total of CZK 18.6 billion for these projects. The subsidies covered 100% of the costs, and in some cases, hospitals used them to purchase devices and equipment that they did not strictly need, buying them solely as backups.
The SAO reviewed the purchase of 27 pieces of equipment. Twelve of them, with a total purchase value of CZK 41.1 million, were used by hospitals significantly less than is typical for similar equipment in the Czech Republic. For example, some hospitals purchased C-arm X-ray machines and performed between two and eight procedures on them in 2024. Meanwhile, the average annual number of procedures performed on these X-ray machines exceeded 400 in 2024. In another case, a hospital used a subsidy to purchase an optical spectrometer, which it had not put into full operation even 21 months after its acquisition. The SAO found less-than-efficient or inefficient use of the purchased devices at all audited hospitals.
Instead of thoroughly verifying the necessity of purchasing equipment and devices, the audited ministries based their determination of the scope of financial support solely on the list of requirements submitted to them by individual hospitals.
The MoRD and the MoH decided to use REACT-EU subsidies to support hospital facilities linked to so-called emergency departments. However, the network of emergency departments had not yet been fully established at the time of the audit, and financial support was also drawn by facilities that were not yet actually connected to a functioning emergency department. Completion of the network of emergency departments is scheduled for 2029 at the earliest. By that time, however, most of the equipment purchased with these subsidies will already be morally and technically obsolete or nearing the end of its service life. The establishment or modernisation of emergency departments themselves could not be financed through REACT-EU.
Based on these findings, the SAO recommends that subsidy providers set a level of co-payment requirement for beneficiaries to encourage them to acquire only assets that are truly necessary. The auditors recommend that the MoH and the MoRD consistently take into account data on the use of equipment when providing financial support.
SAO auditors also compared how individual EU countries used REACT-EU funds. The results of the comparison are available here: https://nku.gov.cz/cz/-id15408 (Czech only).
Communication Department
Supreme Audit Office