Following the Cabinet session on Wednesday, Vladimir Lengvarsky (an OLANO nominee) said that he is ready to offer his resignation as interim health minister. He backs his decision with regards to the latest situation and some doubts concerning the performance of his work. In reaction to Lengvarsky's announcement, interim Prime Minister Eduard Heger (OLaNO) said that indeed the Health Ministry has been failing in some areas under the management of interim minister. The premier pointed to the fact that the National Implementation and Coordination Authority has identified delays in several health-related projects that are financed from the national recovery plan.
Vladimír Lengvarský was the 9th minister in the past 10 years. He leaves the ministry in the middle of a crisis. The unfinished Rázsochy hospital project or the renovations from the Recovery Plan are left without a manager. Delays in projects have been showing for several weeks now.
According to the director of the Institute for Economic and Social Reforms, Dušan Zachar, the minister is making an unfortunate move. “Every change in the post shakes up the ministry while new people get settled, while things get sorted out. Too frequent turnovers in this post mean that there is an unpredictable health policy.”
The most unpredictable outcome is tied to the project of the Rázsochy hospital, for almost 300 million euros from the Recovery Plan. The red light - i.e. a significant delay - was already showing for several steps at the end of January, when the state agency issued an evaluation traffic light. Even after weeks of alerts, the project is still significantly delayed. Peter Demcak from the Recovery Plan Section continues. “We still see big gaps, so we are awaiting the comprehensive timetable from the ministry to see where we are in terms of time. The project is deliverable, though.”
The extra-parliamentary Hlas-SD party has opined that the national recovery plan has been insufficiently implemented, questioning its feasibility in its current state. The party’s economic expert Kamil Sasko said that the problems do not concern only the construction of the planned new hospital in Bratislava, but also other structures. According to him, there are also delays in implementing the recovery plan in the digitisation of the health-care system and the centralisation of hospital management, for which no calls have been announced yet, he claimed.
Source: RTVS, Nina Alžbetkinová
