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News
Slovak Chamber of Dentists calls for the centralization of the system of dental emergency posts in Slovakia. According to the president of Chamber Ján Gašič there does not have to be from 6 to 12 dentist emergency posts in each county available. Another problem is, according to him, the financing of the healthcare system. Young dentists, who are setting up the outpatient clinics, have allegedly problems with closing of the contracts with health insurance companies and with allotted amount of funds.
Healthcare trade unionists organized today a supporting assemblage in front of the building of Ministry of Health in Bratislava. They supported their representatives on the sectoral tripartite negotiations, where they should also talk about the issue of salaries of healthcare professionals. Participants of the negotiation should by mainly laboratorians, physiotherapists, x-ray assistants, other healthcare employees, administrative workers and many others, who work in the inpatient healthcare institutions.
L. Pasteur University Hospital in Košice, with the aim to improve the provision of intensive care, purchased 25 new docking stations with an infusion pumps and linear batchers. New generation of the pumps of type B. Braun SPACE represents an entirely new concept in infusion therapy because of the location of particular pumps and batchers in the common base, so called docking station. Stations will facilitate the patient care due to space-saving and mobile usage.
Operation Centre of Emergency Medical Service plans to invest more than € 3 million into the modernization of communication structure, operators will thus communicate more effectively. The Centre has concluded the contract for completion of infrastructure on January the 17th with Slovak Telekom on the basis of procurement without publication, ergo without public tender. According to spokeswoman of the Centre the public tender was not necessary and Centre allegedly followed the law on public procurement. The former head of the Centre claims that tender should have taken place and he also criticizes the price of the modernization.
Representatives of Slovak Trade Union of Health and Social Services require not to increase only the salaries of doctors and nurses, but of all employees in hospitals. Trade unionists yesterday proposed to ministry the 10% increase of salaries for these workers. Currently, the average wage of other employees in healthcare varies from € 600 to € 800. Ministry reportedly agrees with the increasing of salaries and has set up the working group, which will work on new legislation, which should modify the salaries.
Health insurance companies refuse the proposal of Ministry of Health, which wants to reduce the limit for their administrative costs. MoH proposed such amendment to the Act on health insurance, which should enter into force in April this year. Reason of the change should be a need for additional financing of the sector and increasing of funds intended for payments for health care. Insurance companies do not like the change of current formula for calculation of limit for their administrative costs.
Emergency services do not expect that they will make an agreement with Ministry of Health on the new conditions of their financing. This follows the meeting of Minister Ivan Uhliarik and representatives of the Association of Emergency Medical Service. Association has prepared a proposal, which would bring about 75% of the savings proposed by the Ministry of Health, the Ministry, however, did not accept it. Nevertheless, both parties agreed to meet again.
Všeobecná zdravotná poisťovňa (General Health Insurance Company) proposes that Ministry of Health should more significantly reduce the payments of insurance companies per kilometre of ride of emergency service. Currently are emergency ambulances receiving € 0.70 for one km, ministry proposes the decrease to € 0.60 and insurance company pursues € 0.45. Insurance company considers the amount of € 0.60 as unreasonably overvalued compared to the real costs and to comparable medical transport service. Emergency ambulances, however, claim that lower payments will affect their operation.
According to daily Hospodárske noviny from 26/01/2012 Minister of Health Ivan Uhliarik plans to solve the lack of vaccines in outpatient clinics by their central purchasing. Všeobecná zdravotná poisťovňa (General Health Insurance Company) should allegedly directly purchase the vaccines and deliver them to the outpatient clinics. Problem is, that such an organization of the purchasing of vaccines should be functional not sooner than in April, after the preliminary parliamentary elections in March. Doctors, however, warn that influenza vaccination already fell by two thirds and the strongest flu season will come in February.
Doctors will get for January higher basic salaries, but will miss out on the bonuses, which they had till now, daily Hospodárske noviny reports. This will mean, that they will remain roughly on the same level as before the coercive action, by which they necessitated a higher salaries. Hospitals claim that they can not afford the higher salaries together with bonuses, because they did not get necessary money from the Government and insurance companies. Trade unionists, however, claim that based on the contracts of doctors who noticed in the protest, hospitals cannot cancel their variable part of the salary. Therefore they called on the Government to convene the commission, which should investigate the situation.
