Only 50 percent of Slovaks are content with current health-care standards, according to the results of a recent Eurobarometer survey quoted by the daily Sme.
Five years ago the figure was 53 percent. The European Union’s average in the latest survey stood at 71 percent, while the worst results were reported from Romania, Greece and Bulgaria, where only around 30 percent of people were satisfied with the quality of health care that they've received at local hospitals. At the opposite extreme of the scale was Belgium, where 97 percent of the population are happy with conditions. It was closely followed by Austria, Malta and Finland. “When it comes to Slovakia's results it's difficult to assess whether the evaluation of Slovak patients is fair. As we don't carry out enough measurements and don't publish information on the quality of provided health care, we can't plausibly assess whether our health sector has really become worse as indicated by the polls," said INEKO analyst Dušan Zachar. While nearly one quarter of Slovaks were reported to have experience with various failures on the part of medical staff, only one fifth of them decided to file an official complaint with the respective authority.
