According to the agreement with the unions, the changes include salary increases for doctors, the establishment of mandatory staffing levels in hospitals, and a reduction in working hours for hospital healthcare workers. The legislation also adjusts the responsibilities of health insurance companies and the Office for Healthcare Supervision (ÚDZS).
The new laws eliminate criminal penalties for violations of legal obligations during a state of emergency. Additionally, the critical unavailability of inpatient healthcare will no longer be classified as an extraordinary event.
A revision of working hours for healthcare employees in inpatient care facilities is also being introduced. "For all healthcare workers providing continuous healthcare services, regardless of the specific work schedule arrangement, their working hours may be set at a maximum equivalent to that of an employee in continuous operation," states the explanatory report. The maximum working hours for employees in continuous operation is 37.5 hours per week.
The planned reductions in base wages for 2025 and 2026 will also be scrapped. Instead, a wage increase of 9.66% will take effect on March 1, 2025, for all healthcare workers, followed by a 6.44% increase in 2026. These changes aim to restore doctors' salaries to their pre-consolidation levels. Exceptions apply to doctors working less than half-time while also employed by another healthcare provider, excluding hospitals and emergency services. The exception also applies if they hold a statutory position in another healthcare provider that is not an inpatient care facility.
The Ministry of Health is required to regulate minimum staffing requirements for different types of inpatient healthcare facilities. The ÚDZS will also be mandated to publish data on DRG reimbursements on its website within 30 days of receiving them from health insurers.
The legislation will take effect upon its publication in the Slovak Collection of Laws, except for provisions related to the adjustment of doctors’ and dentists’ base salaries, which will become effective on March 1, 2025. The regulation on minimum staffing requirements for healthcare facilities will take effect on January 1, 2026.
The healthcare reform package is based on an agreement to ensure social stability in the healthcare sector, signed in December 2024 by Minister of Health Kamil Šaško (Hlas-SD) and LOZ on behalf of the government. The government committed to fulfilling multiple demands from medical trade unions. The agreement helped prevent a collapse of hospitals threatened by the resignations of more than 3,300 doctors. Doctors conditionally returned to hospitals with the expectation that the agreed laws would be adopted by the end of February 2025. If not, they planned to leave hospitals in March.
Source: TASR
Jeremy Hill, Photo: TASR
