The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in its latest report on health care, called Health at a Glance 2013, explores the expenses on health care in individual countries. In the study focusing on years 2009-2011, Slovakia placed below average in the expenses for health care-to-GDP ratio.
On the other hand, it spent 0.7 percent more than the average on drugs, the SITA newswire quoted the report. In number of doctors per capita, Slovakia kept pace with developed countries: with 3.3 doctors per 1,000 inhabitants, above the OECD average (which is 3.2). On the other hand, the country lacks nurses, as there are only 5.9 nurses per 1,000 inhabitants as compared to the OECD average of 8.8.
More than half of the doctors in Slovakia are women, the OECD report shows. There were 1.8 nurses per 1 doctor here, while in the Czech Republic this rate is 2.2 nurses and OECD average is 2.8 nurses per doctor. Slovak doctors earn 1.8-times the average salary, while Slovak hospital nurses earn 20-percent less than the average salary, while in the Czech Republic and Poland they earn 1.1-time the average national salary. However, salaries of hospital nurses in Slovakia rose in 13.8 percent between 2005 and 2008 – which is most out of the 22 countries evaluated by OECD. In 2008-2011, the increase was 2.9 percent.
(Source: SITA, OECD)
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
