Health Minister Viliam Čislák (source: TASR)
“The Health Ministry is the ‘El Dorado’ of this phenomenon. Health care is infected with corruption and clientelism, and the infection is spreading,” KDH head Ján Figeľ said, as quoted by the TASR newswire. “I therefore call on the prime minister to act and not just be an observer of this negative trend. He should dismiss Čislák.”
If the prime minister does not act, KDH will collect signatures from MPs to convene an emergency session of parliament in order to express a lack of confidence in the health minister,he added.
The latest scandal involves the head of the state-run health insurance company Všeobecná Zdravotná Poisťovňa (VšZP) Marcel Forai who left his post after suspicions emerged that Forai favoured seven companies where his aunt Anna Součková is a partner. Miroslav Beblavý of the non-parliamentary Sieť party supported his accusations by referring to 69 agreements worth €14 million which VšZP has signed with these companies since 2012.
When approached by the Sme daily, Alexander Winter Hospital in Piešťany board member Alan Suchánek, who was the first to point out the infamous case of the overpriced CT scanner purchased by this hospital in late 2014, supported the idea.
“He should have resigned long ago,” Suchánek told the Sme. “There were too many scandals - like what he allowed to happen in our hospital.”
