New Health Minister Viliam Čislák said on Thursday that he didn't need any persuading to take over at the ministry. Speaking after his appointment by President Andrej Kiska, Čislák added that he's aiming to follow up with projects that have been launched at the ministry.
Čislák declined to speculate as to whether or not he will manage to retain his post until the end of his term. Turning to the issue of the overpriced purchase of a CT device by Piešťany hospital, which cost previous health minister Zuzana Zvolenská her post, Čislák said that he doesn't feel guilty over the issue. He admitted that he and Daniel Chovan, who is one of the board members at Medical Group, of the company involved in that deal, used to be university classmates. However, the new minister rejected notions that Chovan and himself would get to see each other nowadays or that he would be somehow engaged in public procurements. Čislák also wouldn't comment on how he's aiming to make sure that such cases don't occur again. He said that he's aiming to wait for the outcome of a probe into the issue by competent authorities, whereupon further course of action will be determined. His appointment doesn't represent any significant change from his predecessor Zuzana Zvolenská, the Slovak Chamber of Nurses and Midwives stated on Thursday. Nevertheless, the chamber hopes that Čislák, who earlier served as Zvolenská's deputy, will want to resolve the problems faced by health care and that he won't only be interested in areas in which EU funds can be drawn. "We hope that the new minister will value health-care staff more than his predecessor Zuzana Zvolenská did, and that he'll be seriously interested in resolving the problems in Slovakia's health care," reads a written statement provided to TASR by the chamber.
