BRATISLAVA, August 21, (WEBNOVINY) — Patients in some Slovak districts may not be provided emergency medical services as of September. Physicians in Kralovsky Chlmec, Banovce nad Bebravou or Galanta represented by President of the Association of Private Doctors Ladislav Pasztor have allegedly decided not to provide first-aid services at centers of emergency medical care. “I find it very positive that physicians have reported for duty to date but they have run out of patience,“ Pasztor wrote in a letter sent to the Health Ministry but also to the Healthcare Supervision Office and health insurance companies. Healthcare providers fail to pay physicians and many have not sealed the respective contracts.
Pasztor called the above-mentioned districts to be the most striking cases of abuse of statutory obligation of provision of emergency medical care. Other districts including Levice, Trstena and Malacky are also problematic but physicians receive at least partial payments there. “I call for immediate solution to the problem of emergency medical care, namely in the above-mentioned cases where physicians are determined not to report for duty as of September 1, 2011,” reads the letter addressed to the health minister.
First to point out problems with the emergency service were pediatricians from eastern Slovakia, who launched a petition in January 2009. Another petition was later started by the Association of Private Doctors. The previous Health Ministry led by Richard Rasi tried to solve the problems by approving changes to financing. The current Health Ministry introduced the Urgent Medical Care Concept at the beginning of May of this year. The concept also deals with emergency medical care. The Health Ministry submitted the Urgent Medical Care Concept for interdepartmental review at the beginning of May of this year. Based on the concept, emergency medical care should only be available until 10 p.m. Alongside general practitioners or specialists in internal medicines, also other specialists would serve at medical emergency centers. The proposed changes are to take effect as of the beginning of 2012. The Cabinet has not dealt with the material yet.
SITA