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News
Reportedly up to € 37 million may be missing this year to cover increased salaries of doctors and nurses. According to the estimates of health insurance companies, for the increased salaries of doctors and nurses about € 117 million will be needed. Health insurance companies are allegedly expecting that the changes in pharmaceutical policy will save around € 40 million and they will obtain another € 40 million from the higher premium collection.
Slovak Medical Chamber as well as the Association of Private Doctors warn against the collapse of outpatient care. Reportedly it may happen before this summer. The reason should be the increase of salaries of nurses. Minister of Health Ivan Uhliarik, however, claims that covering of increased salaries of nurses in outpatient care is ensured from the increased payments from the state budget and from the pharmaceutical policy.
Government did not approve the proposal of Ministry of Health to cancel two tasks of the Ministry to fulfil the petition of nurses. MoH thereby still have a task to allow the nursing institutions, based of permits and licences, to become the health care providers. Also, MoH has to solve the possibility of reimbursement for provided nursing care in the nursing institutions from the public insurance.
J. A. Reiman Faculty Hospital in Prešov introduced these days, as the first healthcare institution in Slovakia, wearing of identification bracelets for all patients. This innovation should facilitate the work of healthcare staff and reduce the risk of misidentification of hospitalized persons, which may result in an incorrect given treatment. Bracelets are colour coded according to severity of diagnosis of their bearers. New is also the verification form, which is being signed before the surgery.
According to the President of the Association of Private Doctors Ladislav Pázstor, about quarter of GPs for children, one fifth of GPs for for adults and part of pulmonary doctors may terminate their profession. The reason? The recently adopted Act on higher wages of nurses and the fact, that private doctors do not have sufficient resources from the payments of insurance companies. Considering the increase of costs, most at risk are allegedly the rural outpatient clinics. Ministry however claims that the cessation of clinics will not happen because Všeobecná zdravotná poisťovňa increased the payments for these clinics for the 1st quarter of 2012 by 7%.
The right to strike for healthcare professionals will remain intact. The members of Parliament refused the proposal of amendment to the Act on health care providers and related amendments of Penal Code and the Code of criminal procedure, which should have limited the right of healthcare professionals to strike. The proposal prepared by the Ministry of Health was criticized by several members of Parliament. The withdrawal of the registration for the performance in the case of violation of the law was considered as excessive penalty.
Jessenius Faculty of Medicine in Martin is once again the best faculty of medicine in Slovakia. This information results from the evaluation report for 2011 published by the Academic Ranking and Rating Agency ARRA. The agency brought already seventh comparison of levels of education and research in the faculties of universities. Total 109 faculties from 20 public and 5 private universities were evaluated.
Requirement of the nurses, according to which the nursing institutions should be allowed to obtain the permits and license to provide the health care, probably will not be met in the foreseeable future. Ministry of Health is proposing to cancel this task, as well as the possibility of payment for health care provided in the range of social services for the nursing institutions from the public insurance. Slovak Chamber of Nurses and Midwives insists on this requirement and considers as necessary to interconnect the health and social care in Slovakia.
L. Pasteur University Hospital in Košice will have a new pavilion, which will include the urgent reception, surgical reception, operating rooms, laboratories and the runway for helicopter. According to the spokeswoman of the hospital the construction of modern facilities will be financed from the non-repayable contribution in total amount of € 26.5 million within the frame of Operational Programme Health. The end of construction works is scheduled for February 2014.
Ministry of Health is examining the amounts of profits of emergency services before another meeting with the representatives of Association of Emergency Medical Service. Minister Ivan Uhliarik claims, that profits of emergency services are in amount of 20%, representatives of the Association, however, oppose and argue that it is only 5 to 10%. Ministry is therefore investigating by the other providers of emergency medical services the correctness of statements from National Health Information Centre, which is periodically collecting the data on the direct costs and revenues of the providers.
