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HPI
Operation Centre of Emergency Medical Service plans to invest more than € 3 million into the modernization of communication structure, operators will thus communicate more effectively. The Centre has concluded the contract for completion of infrastructure on January the 17th with Slovak Telekom on the basis of procurement without publication, ergo without public tender. According to spokeswoman of the Centre the public tender was not necessary and Centre allegedly followed the law on public procurement. The former head of the Centre claims that tender should have taken place and he also criticizes the price of the modernization.
Representatives of Slovak Trade Union of Health and Social Services require not to increase only the salaries of doctors and nurses, but of all employees in hospitals. Trade unionists yesterday proposed to ministry the 10% increase of salaries for these workers. Currently, the average wage of other employees in healthcare varies from € 600 to € 800. Ministry reportedly agrees with the increasing of salaries and has set up the working group, which will work on new legislation, which should modify the salaries.
Health insurance companies refuse the proposal of Ministry of Health, which wants to reduce the limit for their administrative costs. MoH proposed such amendment to the Act on health insurance, which should enter into force in April this year. Reason of the change should be a need for additional financing of the sector and increasing of funds intended for payments for health care. Insurance companies do not like the change of current formula for calculation of limit for their administrative costs.
Emergency services do not expect that they will make an agreement with Ministry of Health on the new conditions of their financing. This follows the meeting of Minister Ivan Uhliarik and representatives of the Association of Emergency Medical Service. Association has prepared a proposal, which would bring about 75% of the savings proposed by the Ministry of Health, the Ministry, however, did not accept it. Nevertheless, both parties agreed to meet again.
Všeobecná zdravotná poisťovňa (General Health Insurance Company) proposes that Ministry of Health should more significantly reduce the payments of insurance companies per kilometre of ride of emergency service. Currently are emergency ambulances receiving € 0.70 for one km, ministry proposes the decrease to € 0.60 and insurance company pursues € 0.45. Insurance company considers the amount of € 0.60 as unreasonably overvalued compared to the real costs and to comparable medical transport service. Emergency ambulances, however, claim that lower payments will affect their operation.
According to daily Hospodárske noviny from 26/01/2012 Minister of Health Ivan Uhliarik plans to solve the lack of vaccines in outpatient clinics by their central purchasing. Všeobecná zdravotná poisťovňa (General Health Insurance Company) should allegedly directly purchase the vaccines and deliver them to the outpatient clinics. Problem is, that such an organization of the purchasing of vaccines should be functional not sooner than in April, after the preliminary parliamentary elections in March. Doctors, however, warn that influenza vaccination already fell by two thirds and the strongest flu season will come in February.
Doctors will get for January higher basic salaries, but will miss out on the bonuses, which they had till now, daily Hospodárske noviny reports. This will mean, that they will remain roughly on the same level as before the coercive action, by which they necessitated a higher salaries. Hospitals claim that they can not afford the higher salaries together with bonuses, because they did not get necessary money from the Government and insurance companies. Trade unionists, however, claim that based on the contracts of doctors who noticed in the protest, hospitals cannot cancel their variable part of the salary. Therefore they called on the Government to convene the commission, which should investigate the situation.
Management of Slovak Chamber of Medico-technical Professionals negotiated with Minister of Health Ivan Uhliarik about the salary conditions of the professionals associated in the Chamber. Ministry refused their proposal in its current form and calls for elaboration of the proposal with the legal department of the Ministry. According to the President of the Chamber Janka Strapkova Minister promised to create a commission, with which the representatives of the chamber should meet before the end of January.
According to daily Pravda from 27/01/2012 the physiotherapists, laboratory technicians or sanitarians will not have higher salaries. Representatives of trade unions and particular professional chambers of healthcare professionals failed to convince the members of Parliamentary Health Committee to postpone the Act on minimum wages of nurses and develop one common act, which would solve the increasing of salaries of all healthcare professionals. Representatives of other healthcare professionals have been trying to achieve the increasing of their salaries for several years.
Members of the Parliamentary Health Committee approved, despite the criticism of trade unionist, the Act on remuneration of nurses. On the next meeting of Parliament members of Parliament will decide on the act in the second reading. According to the President of the Association of Private Doctors, however, its approval may lead to the end of general outpatient care. He claims that outpatient clinics with one doctor and one nurse will have excessively high labour costs and there will remain no money for the operation of the clinics. Doctors allegedly do not doubt the demands of nurses, but they are asking the state to guarantee the increasing of their income.
