Health Minister Ivan Valentovič has ordered all hospitals not to stop performing surgeries and treating people from March 7, and if they do not obey, he will consider changing their management.
The Roosevelt Hospital in Banská Bystrica announced on March 6 that it would not be able to continue treating people as its accounts had been blocked by a distrainor due to mounting debts. Hospital director Ján Šulaj announced that they would only continue with emergency treatments. According to the health minister, the hospital management should have negotiated an instalment plan to help repay the debts from October 2006. Most of the debts that the hospital is now being penalised for are as old and 2005 and even older.
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
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