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If nurses will try through the courts to carve out their wage claims, they would probably succeed. This opinion was expressed by Ombudswoman Jana Dubovcová. Amendments signed between nurses and employers are according to her forced and nurses would have no problem to prove it in court. And if the legal act is enforced, it is not made freely and seriously, generally the court declares this act as void. Failure to comply with the law only because of the lack of resources is according to Ombudswoman unacceptable and undermines the basic principles of democracy.

Former Minister of Health Ivan Uhliarik allowed the company Sanaplasma, despite the disagreement of the experts, the export of blood plasma abroad. According to the director of National Transfusion Service it is a dangerous precedent and if Sanaplasma takes our donor base, the sufficiency of blood reserves in Slovakia will be threatened. According to Uhliarik the private company fulfilled all necessary conditions, and thus he could not refuse its request. Ministry of Health, according to him, issued the permission in accordance with the law.

Long promised quick measure, which should avert the collapse in healthcare system, seems to be useless for now. Minister of Health Zuzana Zvolenská still does not know how to transfer € 50 million from the state budget reserve into the healthcare system. There is an annual need of € 100 million for higher salaries of healthcare professionals. Until Zvolenská finds a solution, Ministry of Finance will not release the reserve money.

Salaries of nurses should be increased gradually until the end of the year, or from May they will be guaranteed only for nurses in state hospitals. This for now seems to be a solution of the problem with mandatorily increased wages of nurses and the fact that hospitals do not have money to cover them. Representatives of the Slovak Chamber of Nurses and Midwives so far do not like any of these options. The definitive solution will be decided on Friday's Assembly of the Chamber.

President Ivan Gašparovič expects the new Minister of Health Zuzana Zvolenská to prepare a comprehensive legislative change, which will remove the incompatibility of existing laws. According to the President, it is necessary to create one law and then proceed according to it. The proposed change is supported also by the representatives of healthcare professionals and hospitals. They proposed that current six healthcare laws should be finally integrated into one law. 

Representatives of regional non-state hospitals negotiated today with the private insurance company Dôvera. The reason was seeking for financial covering of the mandatorily increased salaries of nurses and midwives. Both sides agreed to continue in negotiations on possible adjustments of contract from June. Dôvera, however, at the same time pointed out that there is a lack of resources in the healthcare system.

Number of inpatient facilities should be, according to the President Ivan Gašparovič, certainly reduced. In the future it will be necessary to solve the density of hospitals and density of beds, which is currently oversized. Minister of Health introduced to the President the proposals, which she wants to incorporate into the government program. They also discussed the measures, by which the MoH wants to solve the salary issue of nurses and other healthcare professionals. Minister will present them to the public after the Tuesday's negotiation with the representatives of nurses. 

Healthcare Surveillance Authority (HCSA) last year imposed penalizations for breach or default of policyholders' or premium payers' obligations in total amount exceeding € 1.9 million. For now, about € 700 000 of this amount was recovered. The most common case is non-payment of monthly health insurance contributions on time and in correct amount.

According to the Minister of Health, Zuzana Zvolenská, with no additional funding from the state, the healthcare system is threatened with the collapse. Zvolenská said, the state-owned Všeobecná zdravotná poisťovňa (General Health Insurance Company) may increase the payments to the health care providers by € 3 million per month. There is, however, a need of € 11 million monthly to cover the mandatorily increased salaries; next year it will be € 15 million. Predecessor of Zvolenská, Ivan Uhliarik has a different opinion and claims that from May this year the health insurance companies will save € 41 - € 49 million on purchasing of cheaper pharmaceuticals.

According to Minister of Health, Zuzana Zvolenská, the profit does not belong to health insurance companies and also thus it would be good for Slovakia to have only one health insurance company. Minister wants to deal with the profit of insurance companies highly expertly, not politically. She therefore promised that objective proposal will be submitted only in case, if it is in accordance with the Constitution and international legislation.