Charleroi Hospitals Face Second Wave of Cuts

The public hospital network serving Charleroi and Chimay is preparing a second round of savings measures after an initial plan worth 16.5 million euros proved insufficient to close a worsening budget gap. HUmani, the intercommunal health authority that runs the region’s public hospitals, polyclinics and care homes, reported a deficit of more than 7 million euros for 2025 and says it must now find roughly 30 million euros a year to stay afloat.

According to RTBF, the figures were set out in a 136-page annual report presented to the public at a special board meeting. Management is now weighing about ten new options, among them the closure of several polyclinics described internally as loss-making “by definition.”

A Pension Bill at the Heart of the Crisis

HUmani says its financial difficulties stem essentially from one problem: the pensions of its statutory staff. The fund financing those retirements is running dry and requires topping up, and the network says it paid close to 10 million euros into it for 2025 alone.

The charge is known as the cotisation de responsabilisation, a contribution introduced in 2011 that requires public operators to fund the pensions of tenured employees as the number of active contributors declines. RTBF reported that the contributions climbed from 13 million euros in 2022 to about 20 million euros in 2023 and are projected to reach roughly 35 million euros by 2028.

That first savings plan, adopted in May, targeted a range of areas. It made parking at the Marie Curie hospital paid, raised doctors’ contributions by 3 percent — expected to bring in around 4 million euros — and cut the company-car budget by 20 percent. It also ended the wound-care clinic, reorganised day surgery and day therapy, and moved to sell non-strategic property including polyclinics in Anderlues and Couvin. HUmani says the measures were designed to preserve its core missions: quality of care, continuity of activity and employment.

Polyclinics and a Rural Hospital in the Balance

With 16.5 million euros saved but roughly 14 million more still needed, the board is expected to examine closures. Of HUmani’s six polyclinics, those attached to the Vesale and Marie Curie hospitals are not, in principle, threatened. The four in the balance are Marchienne-au-Pont, Philippeville, Fontaine-l’Eveque and Mambourg.

A sharper concern hangs over the Centre de Sante des Fagnes in Chimay. The 144-bed facility falls below the 150-bed threshold set by Wallonia’s hospital landscape reform, which requires smaller sites to begin reducing activity from 2026. HUmani’s annual report notes that “one of our hospitals is among the 36 hospital sites threatened by the reform.” The network is seeking an exception for Chimay’s emergency services but says it has received no answers from the ministerial cabinets involved.

If those emergency services were to close, residents of the Chimay area would face a drive of more than 45 minutes to reach care. The town’s maternity unit already shut permanently in 2024.

Banks Pull Back as Investment Stalls

The financial pressure is compounding an investment freeze. According to RTBF, banks no longer want to lend HUmani the money it needs to finance construction, leaving the new Vesale and new Van Gogh projects at a standstill. About 300 million euros have been promised by public authorities, but the financing mechanism requires HUmani to advance the funds first — impossible without borrowing.

Union Anger and a Structural Question

The savings drive has met firm resistance from unions. La DH reported that Melisa Maggio of the CSC Services Publics said staff learned of the measures through the press and a note to workers. “We are not discovering the financial difficulties today,” she said, adding that “this staff deserves respect. It deserves transparency and genuine consultation before any unilateral decision.”

Philippe Barbion of the CGSP argued the root cause is political. “Pension responsibility contributions are a political decision: workers should not have to pay for it,” he said. The unions have announced staff assemblies and actions in the coming days.

Both management and unions appear to agree that the underlying problem — the pension contribution regime — is a federal matter rather than a failure of hospital management. Local municipalities, including Fleurus and Courcelles, have adopted motions demanding a structural response from federal and regional authorities rather than asking communes to plug a shortfall with their own budgets.

What to Watch

The next board meeting will determine which polyclinics, if any, close, and whether any of the roughly 14 million euros still to be found comes from services rather than administration. Two larger questions remain open: whether the federal government adjusts the responsibility contribution mechanism, and whether Wallonia grants Chimay an exception under the hospital reform. Until those answers arrive, HUmani — the region’s largest public employer, with nearly 6,000 staff — is planning for cuts it says it did not choose.