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Loyalty systems in pharmacies are threatened. Ministry of Health wants to submit for public discussion the amendment to the act on pharmaceuticals in July. It should include also the cancellation of discount programs for clients loyal to one brand of public pharmacies. Loyalty discounts system is allegedly pushing the smaller pharmacies out of the market. Critics of this step claim that state also benefits from the loyalty programs. Minister of Health Zuzana Zvolenská wants to open also another reforms of pharmaceutical policy, which was last year enforced by former Minister Ivan Uhliarik.
Management of Bardejov Spa expects this year an increasing of the visit rate on the level of 5-10%. According to the director in 2011 Spa recorded the sale in amount of € 7.989 million and profit before tax amounted to € 225 033. He added, that in last 20 months company invested into the reconstruction of buildings and equipment more than € 3.8 million, of which € 460 000 were grants from EU funds.
Associations of the patients with sclerosis multiplex (SM) are asking the Ministry of Health (MoH) to start to addict to their requirements for a change. In other case they are ready to launch the petition. Crucial for them will be today´s meeting of the Categorization Committee for Pharmaceuticals. Request on the Ministry of Health consists of several basic points, such as solving of the problem of indication restrictions or the wrong setting of the system.
Spas in Slovakia belong according to the Association of Slovak Spas in European context to the best ones. In recent years the accomodation or food services were improved. According to the President of the Association in our spas still mantains the good-quality medical services, which are absolutely comparable with similar spa institutions in Germany, Austria or Czech Republic. In spas, however, according to her continues the decreasing of clients from the slovak health insurance companies because of the impossibility of policyholders to financly contribute to the payment for spa treatment.
Initiative for awareness of the risks of vaccination claims that doctors are forced to act like denunciators by the vaccination and parents, who have legitimate concerns about the health of their children, are criminalized. According to this Initiative the Office for Personal Data Protection exceeded the level of its competence and is replacing the activities of lawmakers. In the case, if parent refuses to vaccinate his/her child, the threating doctor has to report it to the Regional Public Health Office. Initiative wanted to highlight the illegality and the protection of personal data and required in December last year, to delete this proceeding from the proposed amendment to the Decree of Ministry of Health.
New decree of Ministry of Health will shift more pharmaceuticals to the category of supporting pharmaceuticals. This means that they will not be covered by insurance companies. About hundred of pharmaceuticals will be more expensive from April. New decree allows the shifting of 130 medicaments and 92 specific pharmaceuticals into the category of supporting, what means that patients will have to fully pay for them by themselves. Insurance companies will allegedly annually save on these pharmaceuticals more than € 16 million.
Minister of Health Ivan Uhliarik today called on Medical Trade Union (MTU) to shortly submit the Code of Ethics of the relationship between doctor and patient and the proposal of anti-corruption measures in hospitals. Trade unionists committed themselves to elaborate these documents in the Memorandum, which ended the last year´s strike action of the doctors. Leader of trade unionists Marián Kollár claims that by the end of this week the final version of these documents should be prepared. After that, Medical Trade Union plans to submit them for discussion.