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Hospitals and outpatient clinics will use money from the € 50 million reserve in state budget fully for the salaries of healthcare professionals. They, however do not guarantee, that all nurses will see more money, brought by the new act from April, on their May payslips. Despite the fact that money which will arrive to providers will be used for the wages, not all nurses will get the higher salaries for April, as the money did not arrive yet. 

Head of the Ministry of Health Zuzana Zvolenská will monitor the use of the €50 million reserve which she plans to use for the salaries of nurses and doctors. She pronounced it after the negotiation with the representatives of healthcare employers. According to her the Ministry will verify, whether these resources are really used for fulfilling the law which sets the costs on salaries. As she further informed, any negative feedback from the field will be immediately solved by MoH on individual level.

Restrictions of the profit of health insurance companies might not bring any effect. Thanks to accounting operations the insurance companies may have shed millions of euros from collected premiums to their shareholders without breaking the law. Such step is to be found in the accounting of the private insurance company Dôvera. Company got the approval for this from the former management of the Healthcare Surveillance Authority.

Professional, trade union and corporative organizations in health care system increased their demands for additional financing from the state budget through higher payments for state policyholders (children, unemployed, elderly). While last month the Association of Hospitals in Slovakia and Slovak Medical Union of Specialists asked the payments on the level of at least 5% of the average wage, now all of the organizations are together asking the state for rising the payments to 5.5% next year (in 2012 the payment is 4%).

Children, whose parents refuse their compulsory vaccination, will be registered by the Public Health Office. This results from the mandatory statement of the Office for Personal Data Protection. According to it, doctors from May 1st received the authorization to provide personal data of underage individuals, who have not had a vaccination, for the Public Health Office.

Slovak Medical Chamber is trying again to stop the force of law, which from April mandatorily increases wages of nurses and midwives. Chamber therefore turned to the President of Parliamentary Health Comittee Richard Raši, who received more than 1 000 letters with the request of health care providers, members of Slovak Medical Chamber, for suspension of legal norm until it will be financially covered. Doctors are trying to stop the force of this law also through General Prosecutor's Office. 

Newest methods of unique way of treatment using stem cells were introduced by the world and domestic experts on the prestigious international conference about the adult cell stems. Experts were invited to Bratislava by MEP Miroslav Mikolášik, who says that these cells are unique not only in research, but especially for their incredible potential for the treatment of further serious diseases.  Umbilical cord blood, umbilical cord tissue, bone marrow and fat are sources of adult stem cells, to which the modern biomedical research predicts a huge therapeutic potential.

Program Manifesto of the government that emerged from the March early elections is in the healthcare chapter full of general phrases. According to the opposition members of Parliament it does not suggest anyt solutions to the problems of the sector. According to the member of Parliament, Viliam Novotný, whatever the Government does, it can be arranged so that it will look in accordance with the vague Manifesto. According to him, the Manifesto is missing any mention about the planned payments for diagnosis (DRG), information about regional hospitals, or commitment of higher payments for the state policyholders.

Last year totally 1 391 complaints on health care provision were filled to the Healthcare Surveillance Authority and another 260 complaints had to be solved from the previous year. Less than one thousand complaints were related to the review of the good medical practice, but only 282 of them the Authority evaluated as justified. Most amercements, a total of five, were given by Authority to the general hospital in Rimavská Sobota. 

Minister of Health Zuzana Zvolenská plans to start another round of negotiations with healthcare employers on the nurses' salary issue. At the negotiating table she should meet with the Association of Faculty Hospitals, Association of Hospitals in Slovakia, trade unionists and the representatives of private doctors. The exact date of the meeting is not known yet.