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Tag: nurses
Medical Trade Union will provide nurses in hospitals with full legal service. In order to avoid the legal increasing of salaries of nurses from April the 1st some hospitals forced nurses to sign amendments to their contracts, according to which they will remain only part-time nurses. Trade unionists advise nurses to contact the representative of trade unionists in their healthcare institution. Legal service includes the filling of complaint to the relevant state institutions such as Labour Inspectorate, Ministry of Health, or their representation in negotiations with mentioned institutions.
Nurses asked the self-governmental units to check the compliance with personal norms in hospitals, so that there would not be more patients per each nurse than it should be. According to the President of Slovak Chamber of Nurses and Midwives, Mária Lévyová, some managers would come up to the situation, when one nurse would take care of 60 patients. If hospitals infringe the norms, they might lose license as well as contracts with health insurance companies.
Medical trade unions called on Ministry of Health to keep the promise given to nurses in terms of new way of their renumeration. According to Ivan Uhliarik, however, doctors do not have moral right to comment on the wages of nurses, as they used patients as hostages during negotiating of their salaries and turned to Constitutional Court because of the salaries of nurses.
Nominee of party Smer-SD for the post of Ministry of Health, Zuzana Zvolenská, is planning to deal with nurses, hospitals and doctors about the solution of critical situation, which occurred after approving of the Act on minimum wage claims of nurses. Zvolenská also accented that new government will not doubt the claims of nurses. New head of the MoH will probably try to open the Act on state budget and increase the payments for the state policyholders.
Medical Trade Union does not like the behaviour of some hospitals against nurses by fulfilling of the Act on their minimum wages. Many healthcare institutions are in fact, due to the lack of resources, trying to avoid the approved legislation. Doctors allegedly support nurses. Trade unionist consider as the main problem of inadequate financing of hospitals the reluctance of health insurance companies to make real payments for services.
Nurses in the hospital in Žiar nad Hronom, under the threat of dismissal, are signing the amendments to the contracts, which divides their duty between the nurse and administrative officer. This way hospital wants to circumvent the law which increases their salaries. According to the President of Slovak Chamber of Nurses and Midwives the amendments to the contracts are a violation of law in providing of health care, restriction of their profession and also a threat of the safety of patients.
President of the Slovak Trade Union of the Health and Social Services claims that trade unions are expecting that public hospitals will from April implement the increasing of salaries of healthcare professionals, which resulted from the decision of the judge in the collective dispute. This way he reacted to the statement of the Association of Faculty Hospitals that it will defend against this decision on the Court. The action from the side of hospitals allegedly shocked trade unionists, which have not yet met with such a reaction in the collective bargaining.
Private doctors will not close their clinics from April the 2nd, as they threatened. About three-quarters of nurses working for them, however, will not get increased salaries. Head of the Association of Private Doctors Ladislav Pásztor said that doctors do not have money for increasing of salaries of nurses. To increase their salaries, according to him, will not be possible in the clinics, which have less than 1 300 patients and paediatricians, who care for less than 900 children. According to Pásztor the outpatient doctors would need about € 300 million for increasing of salaries of nurses.
Health Committee of the Slovak Medical Chamber is not satisfied with the negotiated conditions with health insurance company Dôvera. Results from the statement of the Committee are: increasing of prices is minimal and in any case does not ensure the increasing of sources by the most of healthcare providers in non-state outpatient sphere, necessary for implementation of the act on minimum wage claims of nurses, by the full-time employing of nurses.
Outpatient doctors reiterate that increasing of salaries of nurses will cause problems in their sector. According to the President of the Association of Private Doctors after April 1st, when the Act on minimum wage claims of nurses will enter into force, about quarter of outpatient clinics will get into the loss. They will allegedly have to end up their activity or find another solution. Ministry of Health, according to its spokeswoman, however, believes that cancellation of clinics due to the increasing of salaries of nurses will not happen.
