Prime minister takes over health ministry

President Zuzana Čaputová on Tuesday accepted the resignation of Health Minister Andrea Kalavská (a Smer-SD nominee) and appointed Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini (Smer-SD) to temporarily head the ministry. The president praised Kalavská's intention to reform the hospital system and said that she understood both the former health minister's reasons for resigning and her disappointment. "I'm convinced that [the intention to alter the direction of the health sector] was a right and well-justified aspiration," said the President, adding that in the end the political will to enact such reform hadn't been mustered. Health Minister Kalavská chose to step down from her post on 9 December, shortly after the Government on 4 December withdrew hospital reform, a so-called stratification bill, from Parliament's agenda.