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Ministry of Health proposes the changes in pricing of pharmaceuticals brought by last-year pharmaceutical reform made by former Government. As results from the proposal of the amendment to the act on extent and conditions of payments for pharmaceuticals, their price in Slovakia should not be higher than an average of three lowest prices in European Union. This principle affects also the medical devices and dietary supplements. Previously the prices in Slovakia were set by comparing of six lowest prices in EU and according to this average they were determined for the domestic market.

Slovak Medical Chamber likes the project of one health insurance company on the market. Its boss Marian Kollár claims that before this would be introduced, it is neccessary to take several steps. He wants to talk about them at first with Prime Minister Robert Fico and Minister of Health Zuzana Zvolenská. According to the President of the Chamber the current system of public insurance does not meet the expectations of the society. Slovak Medical Chamber thus according to him supports the introducing of one health insurance company.

Number of beds in institutional health care has been decreasing. At the same time the average treating time and number of days that patient stays in hospital have been decreasing. This information was provided by Peter Bubla from National Health Information Centre. While in 2009 the total number of beds was more than 35 520, in 2010 it was 35 132 and last year only 32 954 beds. Within three years the number of beds thus decreased by 2 566 beds. 

Ministry of Health wants to prevent the human blood or plasma to be collected and exported without processing as a starting material for preparation of transfusion pharmaceuticals for industrial use in pharmaceutical industry. Only residential healthcare institutions and national transfusion service would thus be able to obtain the permission for preparing of transfusion pharmaceuticals. Ministry is planning to enforce this change through the amendment to the act on pharmaceuticals and medical devices.

Paediatricians are angry at former Minister Ivan Uhliarik and are asking for bringing a suit against him. The reason is a change in purchasing of vaccines adopted by the Ministry of Health at the end of last year. This was stated by the head of Section of Paediatricians of Slovak Medical Chamber, Katarína Šimovičová. While previously the vaccines were issued by the pharmacy to nurse or doctor on the prescription for a particular patient, from December last year they have to be purchased by doctors themselves. Doctors claim they do not have money for it.

Ministry of Health will significantly not prohibit the extension of the networks of pharmacies. Although Minister in the prepared amendment to the act on pharmaceuticals proposes how many pharmacies may be owned by one person or company, but does not specify that the owner should only be a pharmacist. Slovak Medical Chamber would, according to its vice president, prefer the model that works in most of EU countries, that a pharmacist may own only one pharmacy.

Ministry of Health is working on further reduction of beds and departments in the frame of decreasing of debts of faculty hospitals. Compared with last year this optimizing should be carried out gradually and only in big cities. Cancelling of beds and departments is related to presented plans of the Ministry to centralize the performances. In practice this means that hospitals will be specialized on certain procedures so they would not be provided in other hospitals at once.

Prohibition of loyalty systems in public pharmacies already has its legal version. Ministry of Health has submitted to public comments the material, which proposes the prohibition of providing financial or non-financial benefits and donations by the pharmaceuticals, dietary supplements and medical devices available on prescription. Holder of the provision for providing of pharmaceutical care will not be able to provide such benefits personally or through other persons. 

Associations representing all key pharmaceutical producers and distributors have participated on the professional discussion on pharmaceutical legislation. They have submitted to Ministry of Health their proposals for adjustment of the acts influencing the pharmaceutical and medical devices market. In their proposals they are mainly dealing with unsolved issues of contradiction of several laws, as well as with the facto non-enforcement of some legal standards, overall market flexibility or strengthening of patient rights.

Health insurance company Dôvera began with sending of annual settlement of insurance to first 50 000 clients. Further settlements will be sent by this insurance company on the date chosen by its policyholders. Dôvera plans to make totally 170 000 of them. Clients can find the result at their home address or at the address of their employer. Detail calculation can be found also on the website of insurance company.