A declaration of willingness to give notice of termination of their job contracts has been signed by 3,249 Slovak doctors from 48 hospitals, Martin Kollár from the Doctors Trade Union Association (LOZ) announced on July 20, the TASR newswire reported.
The doctors signing the declaration are expressing their desire to fight for better conditions in the Slovak health-care system and are ready to submit resignation notices if their demands are not considered. LOZ has prepared a list of what they consider the ten biggest problems in the Slovak health-care system, including issues such as the drive to transform hospitals into joint-stock companies, low state contributions for insurance policy-holders paid by the state, wasting of money by hospitals, a long-term shortfall in allocating money to health care and violations of the Labour Code.
The Health Ministry believes no mass resignations of doctors will occur, as measures carried out by the ministry will soon boost health care and save money in the sector, ministry spokesperson Katarína Zollerová told TASR newswire on July 20. The Health Ministry appealed to LOZ not to use patients as hostages when promoting its demands.
"The ministry agrees with most of the demands of the doctors’ trade unions, such as observing the Labour Code, allocating more money for hospitals and increasing the salaries of health-care personnel. But [this] is closely related to the transformation of hospitals into joint-stock companies, which is being rejected by the doctors’ trade unions for incomprehensible reasons," Zollerová stated.
Source: TASR
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
