A Health Ministry-sponsored large-scale reform of the hospital network in the country was passed at the Government session held on Wednesday. While the ministry does not intend to shut down any hospitals, their reclassification into five categories should result in fewer preventable deaths, more protected lives and better conditions for the work of staff. The optimisation of hospital networks is part of the largest set of reforms, to which €1 billion is tied, the largest volume of health investment money in the history of Slovakia.
According to the Prime Minister Eduard Heger (OLaNO), the health reform will introduce significant improvements to the quality of health care. "It's a reform of cardinal importance and it's great that we can support it with a billion euros under the recovery plan," stated Heger, adding that the money is earmarked for the construction of new hospitals and the reconstruction of the existing ones.
Ministers representing the 'We Are Family' coalition party did not vote for the health reform, due to the fact that 100-percent guarantees have not been extended that no hospitals are to be shut down. The Economy Minister for the Freedom and Solidarity party, Richard Sulik, said that his party harbours some reservations regarding the bill, but wishes to add final touches to it in Parliament. "We need to move forward. The optimisation of hospitals is a condition to be met if we want to receive money from the recovery plan for health care," he added.
According to the opposition non-parliamentary Voice-SD party, the hospital reform is unsystematic and puts €1.5 billion that Slovak patients are to receive from the EU recovery plan into jeopardy. In the view of Voice-SD, the reform mainly fails to take into account the accessibility of health care.
The reform still needs to be greenlighted by the Parliament.
