Health Minister asked to withdraw hospitals’ reform bill

Health Minister Andrea Kalavská (a Smer-SD nominee) was asked on Monday to withdraw the bill introducing the reform of the hospitals network, merely a few minutes before a planned vote in Parliament due to an alleged lack of support among MPs, according to her spokesperson Zuzana Eliasova. MPs could vote on the proposed hospital reform at the next session of Parliament. The bill -which is strongly opposed by the leader of the Smer party and former PM Robert Fico as well as the head of the Slovak Chamber of Doctors- aims to create a network of hospitals optimally distributed across the country with guaranteed funding from health insurance companies and fully functional by 2030. Hospitals are to be divided into three categories, each offering a different range of services. Local hospitals will ensure a high availability of acute care, while regional hospitals will provide more comprehensive health care and national ones will deal with the most complex medical procedures.