BRATISLAVA, October 18, (WEBNOVINY) — The opposition SMER-SD party demands halting the transformation of hospitals, which were to become joint-stock companies before the end of this year. “We are currently looking for legislative means to halt the ongoing transformation of hospitals to joint-stock companies. This is a process a non-existent Cabinet cannot do. It represents intense interference in the healthcare system. A new Cabinet will have to decide on such actions,” stated party’s chairman Robert Fico at Tuesday’s press conference. The transformation of hospitals is taking place on the basis of a law which has been in force since April 2011.
Halting the transformation of hospitals could change the decision of some 2,400 Slovak hospital doctors, who filed resignation notices to protest against these changes on October 1. They would leave their jobs on December 1. Except for abandoning the plan for transformation, the doctors also demand abiding by the Labor Code, changing the system of financing health care and improving their salaries. Opposite views on transformation were the main obstacles in all recent negotiations of the minister with unions.
Transformation of state-owned hospitals into joint-stock companies is envisioned in the amendment to the law on health insurance companies in force from April. Health care facilities managed by the Health Ministry have to transform by the end of 2011, in special cases the deadline can be postponed by six months. Hospitals managed by other ministries have to be transformed before the end of June 2012. The state is to be the founder and 100-percent shareholder of the new companies. Altogether 31 facilities, which the parliament already approved 350 million euros to settle their debts, are to undergo transformation.
SITA
