BRATISLAVA, September 29, (WEBNOVINY) – As of Thursday, 2,411 doctors from 34 hospitals all over Slovakia have submitted notices, informed the Medical Trade Unions Association (LOZ) head Marian Kollar. He told journalists that doctors who expressed their discontent with the situation in the health sector by submitting notices are from all teaching hospitals and also from several smaller health facilities including those operating as joint stock companies. The LOZ will submit resignation notices that it is collecting from doctors to employers en masse by the end of September. Kollar reported that if unionists fail to reach an agreement with the Health Ministry the health sector in Slovakia might collapse after December 1 when the notice period lapses.
Trade unionists view filing notices as the only and last resort that can save Slovakia’s collapsing healthcare. “We are convinced that we will succeed,” said Kollar. The LOZ started collecting notices from physicians who agreed to this form of protest as of August 25 of this year. At that time, 3,827 physicians from 51 hospitals have signed a declaration of readiness to submit a notice to their employers. The Medical Trade Unions Association has four requirements: to observe the Labor Code, change the system of health care funding, stop transformation of hospitals into joint-stock companies and increase wages of health care employees. The doctors perceive all their requirements as a complex. They will be satisfied only if the Health Ministry fulfills all of their demands.
The Medical Trade Unions Association presently clusters nearly 2,000 members. According to expert estimates, about six thousand doctors currently work in hospitals in Slovakia.
SITA