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HPI
Fight of doctors for higher salaries did not end successfully for everyone. For many of them the January payment was disappointing. Some salaries increased only by few euros, by others the directors of hospitals cut into the personal allowances, and so now they have lower salary than before. According to the Minister of Health Ivan Uhliarik the law determining the salaries of doctors applies to all hospitals. Management of each hospital should, according to him, find the resources for salaries. Minister recommends doctors to contact the ministry, if necessary.
Police will not prosecute members of Medical Trade Union, headed by the chairman Marián Kollár, for the protest action of doctors, which culminated in the declaration of emergency state. This results from the order of District Police Headquarters in Bratislava V, which rejected more than 20 complaints. According to the police investigator, Marián Kollár and his colleagues in trade union did not commit any criminal offence and they only set up their claims granted by the Constitution and Labour Code.
Labour inspectors are currently monitoring hospitals if they increased the basis wage of doctors from the beginning of this year. The change of relevant law after last year’s strikes committed the providers of in-patient care to the salary adjustment. The labour inspectors are verifying approximately 80 hospitals during one-day nationwide inspection. Inspectors will also check the procedure of hospitals in the case of withdrawal of notices of doctors.
Ministry of Health is currently not considering to use the €50 million reserved in the state budget for health care before the early parliamentary elections. According to the spokeswoman of the Ministry Katarína Zollerová it is not necessary in this moment. Medical trade unionists as well as smaller hospitals, however, already called few times to use the reserve for the increasing of salaries of healthcare professionals. Also General Health Insurance Company (Všeobecná zdravotná poisťovňa) asked for such additional funding.
Minister of Health Ivan Uhliarik today called on Medical Trade Union (MTU) to shortly submit the Code of Ethics of the relationship between doctor and patient and the proposal of anti-corruption measures in hospitals. Trade unionists committed themselves to elaborate these documents in the Memorandum, which ended the last year´s strike action of the doctors. Leader of trade unionists Marián Kollár claims that by the end of this week the final version of these documents should be prepared. After that, Medical Trade Union plans to submit them for discussion.
Some outpatient doctors, after the increasing of the wage for their nurses, will not have enough resources for their own salaries. According to the information of web portal ZdraveZdravotníctvo.sk, if in accordance with the new Act on minimum wage of nurses and midwives the doctor increases the salary of the nurse, his/her own wage might be endangered. This may happen in case, if these increased demands will not be covered by the higher payments from health insurance companies.
University hospital in Martin opened a new surgical pavilion. Its construction took two years and required an investment of approximately €15 million. The project was co-financed from the European Regional Development Fund under the Operational Programme Health. The participation of hospital was 5%. Pavilion has 92 new beds. According to Minister of Health Ivan Uhliarik the new pavilion meets the latest stringent conditions of 21st century.
President Ivan Gašparovič signed the law on minimum wages of nurses and midwives. Act will come into force on April 1st. This Act will increase the minimum wages of nurses and midwives to €640 (up to to € 928, depending on length of work experience). The law affects wages of all nurses and midwives, regardless of the type of employer. Increase of salaries will will cost €77 million in 2012.
Pharmaceutical companies do not agree with the new draft law extending the advertising ban to OTC pharmaceuticals containing the same substance or same combination of substances as the Rx pharmaceuticals. Ministry of Health suggested this change in the amendment to the Act on Pharmaceuticals. Pharmaceutical companies are protesting against it in the commentary round. The extended advertising ban would reportedly affect most of currently registered pharmaceuticals.
At the beginning of the year Children Faculty Hospital in Košice should have signed a contract for the reconstruction of its facilities worth € 11.8 million. However, public procurement, already declared, had to be cancelled. Public Procurement Office ordered the control of administrative procedure of the competition based on anonymous submission. Hospital is currently planning to re-start the public procurement procedure for the realization of the project.
