The results of a Health Ministry tender for 78 licences for medical-emergency services are set to be cancelled, the Association of Emergency Service Providers (APZZS) claimed on September 15.
APZZS head Ján Hencel called on Health Minister Richard Raši to cancel ongoing tenders for other licences as well. APZZS lawyer Marek Benedik claims that the ministry's use of a closed tender was not in line with the law on health-care providers. As a result, APZZS wants new tenders.
According to Benedik, the Health Ministry set conditions for participation in the tender that are not required by the law. Moreover, APZZS claims that the ministry amended several criteria for evaluating licence bidders that also don't correspond with the law.
Hencel told the TASR newswire that the ministry should have chosen the emergency-service providers based on two main criteria - material-technical and personnel. "The results [of the present tender] might be incorrect as not only those criteria determined by the law were used," he stated. Benedik pointed to four tender-exclusion decisions that he says show that the bidders were rejected due to requirements that went beyond the law.
Health Ministry spokesperson Zuzana Čižmáriková rejected the APZZS claims. According to her, the ministry is surprised that the emergency-service providers are concerned about offering services based on exactly the exact same criteria that were used during the term of the previous government. The tender determined that 78 emergency centres would be run by 16 companies. Most centres would be run by Emergency Transport and Health Service Bratislava and Falck - Emergency Košice. The tender was organised after the previous licences had expired.
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
