Liberals to file criminal complaint for eHealth

The Opposition Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) party will file a criminal complaint against an unknown offender for violations of the obligations of public officials relating to the introduction of the eHealth system. The liberals claim that "no technical issues should accompany the implementation of electronic health care, as the setting up of the system cost more than €100 million". It was officially launched all at once as of January 1^st amidst heavy criticism from mainly private doctors arguing they lose on average one and a half hours per day on working with eHealth. Apart from still relatively low connectivity, the system's use is limited by the requirement to use patients' electronic ID cards in order to access it. At the moment only about half of Slovakia's inhabitants have such a card so a transitional period until 2021 is in place allowing patients to use their current health insurance card, too. As a consequence, doctors still need to use paper for keeping health records. The Health Ministry accused liberals of spreading alarmist messages. "The ministry is aware of the objective reasons why not all providers have been able to join the system on time but not everything is bad," said its spokesperson Zuzana Eliášová adding that the smooth running of eHealth needs time.