State hospitals should be better connected, as this could help them cooperate more effectively in areas such as shared services, procedures and procurement. Analyst Martin Vlachynský from the Institute of Economics and Social Studies (INESS) says better networking is one of the steps needed to make the Slovak healthcare system more efficient. He says hospitals should not only centralize purchases, but also share services such as accounting, legal support, marketing and infrastructure. According to him, hospitals currently operate as separate entities, and a unified structure would make administration and workforce management easier.
The President of the Association of State Hospitals supports the idea. Similar regional hospital networks already operate in the Czech Republic. Health Minister Kamil Šaško (HLAS-SD) says some forms of networking are already taking place in Slovakia today. According to him, hospitals are already increasingly using joint purchasing systems for medicines and medical equipment. The aim, he says, is to improve transparency and avoid large unexplained price differences between hospitals buying the same equipment.
Opposition MP and physician Tomáš Szalay (SaS) also supports hospital networking. However, he says the first step should be transforming hospitals into joint-stock companies in order to introduce clearer rules and management processes.
Source: STVR
