HPI

Minister of Health Ivan Uhliarik talked to the doctors from Childrens' Faculty Hospital in Bratislava, they did not arrived to a particular agreement though. Doctors said that minister did not convince most of them to withdraw their notices. Hospital still registers 112 notices, originally there were 121 of them. Minister said that he has also discussed with doctors the additional financing and the approximate amount that the hospital would need for not making the debts. According to doctors, Minister offered € 10 million, but Minister said, they did not talk about the specific sum.

More than 2 000 doctors will not withdraw their notices even after the talks with Prime Minister Iveta Radičová. Prime Minister and doctors discussed about transformation and growth of wages. They agreed that she will speak to experts to try to find such a form of functioning for hospitals, which would ensure rational and effective management of public finances. In the case of wages Prime Minister pointed out, that she must take into account also other workers in the sector, but savings that the new law on pharmaceuticals will bring, could be possibly moved to the salaries of health professionals.

Bailout of public hospitals, which should have been changed to join-stock companies, is now suspended. This was the decision of Ministry of Finance. The reason is the stoppage of transformation until the early elections in March. Originally there were € 350 million earmarked for the bailout of hospitals. Debts of 31 public hospitals represent approximately € 500 million. According to MoF spokesman the bailout of hospitals together with transformation into the joint-stock companies should have ensured more effective functioning of hospitals. But as he said, the change of management will not occur without the transformation.

Nurses and midwives should get better from April next year. The government had approved the draft bill on their pay. The average wage of nurses and midwives should be, compared to the first half of this year, increased by 24  % in average. The law applies on nurses and midwives and also on the nurses working in foster homes. Increase of the minimum wage was one of the requirements of nurses and midwives in the petition backed by more than 243 000 citizens. The costs of this change are more than € 77 million for the next year.

Žilina self-governing region has suspended the planned transformation of four regional hospitals. Hospitals in Dolný Kubín, Liptovský Mikuláš, Trstená and Čadca will therefore continue their operation as contributory organizations. Members of regional parliament want to see how the situation will develop, and wait for the new government and its decision whether the transformation of the state-owned hospitals will continue or not.

Children̍s' Faculty Hospital in Bratislava is starting the first phase of building of cancer biobank, which will be able to storage the samples of bone marrow and peripheral blood of paediatric haematological malignancies, ergo tumour cells of patients. This procedure has become an indispensable part of modern therapy in paediatric oncology. Anti-Cancer League  has contributed € 9 400 for the purchase of deepfreezing box, which can freeze the samples to minus 86 degrees Celsius and long-term store the cells of patients safe and in a good quality. Box capacity is about 5 000 samples.

The strike of the doctors is according to the Minister of Health currently just about the salaries. He noted, that the main requirement of trade unions (to stop the transformation of hospitals) is already fulfilled. He also agrees with further requirements – observance of the Labor code and more financial resources in the healthcare system. Problem remains, however, with the rise of salaries. Trade unionists are requiring the base wage in amount from € 1 250 to € 4 000. Along with the surcharges the salary of the doctor would rise to € 2 000 - € 4 000. Such an increase would cost the state annually about € 200 million, which is, according to Minister, unrealistic for the Slovak economy.

The Associated tissue bank in University Hospital in Košice started the reconstruction. It will result in the modern laboratories and outpatient part. Work should be completed in May 2012, the costs were calculated to € 1.134 million. Medical and laboratory equipment will cost more than € 1 million. The hospital received money from the EU Operational programme Health.

Medical trade unions from the countries of Visegrad Four (V4) agreed to establish a common federation, in which they will join the forces. Health trade unionists from Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Poland want to increase pressure on their governments to enforce their interest. According to the head of Polish trade union club current situation in the health care system can no longer be tolerated. He also said that the post-communist countries did not take over the design of health systems in Western Europe, which had a negative impact on staff and patients.

According to daily Hospodárske noviny from 4/11/2011 more than ten thousand patients are waiting for a planned operation. Although the law says that no one should wait for the operation longer than one year, there are thousands of them. There are 2 400 patients on the waiting lists of Všeobecná zdravotná poisťovňa. The longest waiting times are for the hip replacements and other orthopaedic surgery. Hospitals put patients on the waiting lists when they can not treat them within 3 months. The reason may be a lack of material, physicians on the leave of absence, financial limits from insurance companies or high number of patients already on the list.