Stock image. (source: TASR)
Slovakia risks hospitals collapsing this autumn as there is a possibility in the coming weeks that nurses will join doctors and resign en masse. According to some hospitals, some nurses have already done so.
Although they number in a few dozen, according to the Sme daily more can be expected in the coming weeks. Even a relatively small number such as this can endanger functioning of hospitals, because more than 2,100 doctors have already submitted their resignations.
The nurses are determined to file notices despite the parliament's approval of a pay rise. Like doctors, nurses are not happy with the amount. The basic gross earning of a nurse with twenty years of experience will increase from more than €940 to more than €1271 from the new year.
Both the Health Ministry and hospitals in which nurses and doctors have resigned, claim that they have prepared crisis plans for operation. However, they do not want to reveal them in order not to "spread panic".
According to the Slovak Chamber of Nurses and Midwives, there are more than 31,000 nurses in Slovakia, with about 12,000 in hospitals.
Dozens of file notices
Most of the nurses have resigned from the Louis Pasteur University Hospital in Košice (UNLP).
"At the UNLP, 25 out of more than 1,080 nurses have filed their notices," said hospital spokeswoman Monika Krišková.
Another facility where nurses decided to follow the doctors in mass resignations is the Trenčín Faculty Hospital.
"As of September 30, 2022, six nurses have filed their notices in our hospital," said spokeswoman Martina Holecová. According to her, a total of 626 nurses work in the Trenčín hospital.
Other university and faculty hospitals contacted by Sme daily either do not know of nurses' resignations, or did not respond by the deadline. The daily contacted eleven of the largest healthcare facilities that are key to Slovakia.
Data show that at least 31 nurses have resigned so far.
In the coming days and weeks, however, more may do so at the Bratislava University Hospital (UNB), the largest in Slovakia, and patients with some diagnosis come here from all over Slovakia.
According to Viera Sziartová, head of the regional chamber of nurses in Bratislava's Ružinov district, declarations about being ready to resign are already circulating in the UNB departments. Such declarations preceded the mass resignations of doctors.
How many nurses could actually resign at UNB should become clear in the second half of October, added Sziartová.
The last time nurses filed their notices en masse was in 2016. At that time, more than 600 of them wanted to leave. However, in the end only a small part of them resigned. The then government adjusted their salaries, but not as much as they wanted.
An unknown collapse
The situation in 2022 is different, however. If more than 2,100 doctors are joined by at least a few hundreds of nurses, Slovak hospitals may experience a collapse that none have yet witnessed.
"Providing health care at UNB may be endangered by a nurses strike, not doctors," said Tomáš Szalay, an analyst at the governmental Health Policy Institute and head of the health department of the Bratislava Self-Governing Region.
This was at the beginning of September when doctors were just deciding whether to resign. In the end, more than 500 out of the 1,490 UNB doctors decided to file their notices.
"It would mean an even greater limitation in providing health care," said health analyst Dušan Zachar of the Institute for Economic and Social Reforms think tank.
Several healthcare experts, as well as doctors themselves, admit that nurses are irreplaceable when it comes to patients.
Some doctors even admit that a nurse with specialization and many years of experience is more valuable to a hospital than an uncertified doctor who just graduated from medical school.
Neither the ministry nor the hospitals accept the collapse.
"The Health Ministry is doing and will continue to do everything to ensure that health care is not restricted due to the resignation of doctors or other health workers," said the ministry spokeswoman Petra Lániková.
According to her, it is premature to talk about crisis plans for hospitals in the event of the departure of doctors and nurses, because the ministry is still negotiating with them.
©Sme
