HPI

Slovakia is at the end of the developed world within the frame of eHealth. Effort of the Ministry of Health of the Slovak republic aims to accelerate the development of eHealth so that first benefits for citizens, health care institutions and state will come in 2013. Statement of preparation analysis of the Program for the implementation of eHealth into practice is currently in proceedings. The government is committed to develop and complete the implementation of eHealth by meeting the needs of Slovak health care system and EU strategy.

Patients with advanced diseases of cornea have a new hope. For the first time in Slovakia doctors implanted the 6-millimeter cornea rings, in the eye medicine known as Kerarings. Although the method is not new in Slovakia, for the first time medical team implanted the ring with a diameter of 6 millimeters, allowing a treatment to the wider range of patients.

The private equity group Penta enhanced its investment portfolio by another hospital – Hospital and Outpatient Centre in Partizánske. The new investor committed himself to operate the hospital for 20 years. Assumed amount of the annual hospital lease should be € 100 000, while 90% of this amount should be invested back into the hospital.

The way of drug prescriptions in Slovakia will be changed. President has signed the new Act on Pharmaceuticals with effect from December 1st, 2011. Beside the prescribed drug, doctors will be required to initiate also the active substance, while the obligation of the pharmacist will be to expend the cheapest drug. Based on the clinical grounds, the doctor will be authorized to prohibit the expedition of the generic drug. This change will affect approximately 40% of the pharmaceuticals. Ministry of Health expects the annual savings of patients to be € 50 million annually.

According to daily Hospodárske noviny from 28/9/2011 the government approved another step in the transformation of the state hospitals into joint stock companies. State will be a 100 % shareholder of the transformed hospitals and the transfer of the shares will be approved by the government. Transformation should bring more effective management of the hospital resources and termination of wastage. 31 hospitals are to be transformed till the end of this year.

Another University hospital has a new director. After Bratislava, Žilina and Martin, head of the hospital was also changed in Košice. The new director of L. Pasteur University Hospital in Košice became Tomáš Sieber. Change in the director position was reportedly necessary due to speed up the adoption of stabilization measures in the hospital.

According to daily SME from 3/10/2011 the Ministry of Health of Slovak republic proposes to reduce office hours of emergency posts up to 10pm. This restriction is justified by inefficiencies and is based on analysis, which was made in March 2009 and January 2011. Association of first aid providers doubts the results of the analysis and fears that office hours shortening will threaten the access to care.

According to daily SME from 3/10/2011 the Czech republic attracts Slovak doctors. After mass resignation notices in the past week the first Czech hospital has made a recruitment of Slovak physicians. Hospital in Vsetín reportedly does not want to misuse the current situation in Slovakia and highlights a need of doctors from Slovakia. Hospital in Vsetín offers better working conditions and is interested in a wide range of practitioners. 

This consists of three stages. Initially, the text of the HiT is checked, reviewed and approved by the series editors of the European Observatory. The HiT is then sent for review to two independent academic experts and their comments and amendments are incorporated into the text, and modifications are made accordingly. The text is then submitted to the relevant ministry of health, or appropriate authority, and policy-makers within those bodies are restricted to checking for factual errors within the HiT.