LOZ: Hospital Doctors Ready to File Notices En Masse by End of Month

Bratislava, October 22 (TASR) - Hospital doctors are prepared to file their resignation notices en masse by the end of October, with 2,462 doctors already having drafted them, head of the Doctors Trade Union (LOZ) Peter Visolajsky announced at a press conference on Tuesday. Visolajsky underlined that there is still time for the government to settle matters around a negotiating table. Ready to leave by the end of the month are thousands of doctors from university and faculty hospitals, the majority of small hospitals as well as privately owned hospitals, from the most overburdened departments such as surgery, gynecology, cardiology and medical wards. "As Slovakia has learnt repeatedly, running Slovak hospitals without these doctors is impossible," noted Visolajsky, adding that the resignation notices are growing in number with each passing day. It is of cardinal importance for LOZ to have a system in place that will keep health-care personnel in hospitals. LOZ also insists on compliance with eight points of a memorandum, signed by representatives of doctors and the government back in 2022. "Addressing salaries alone won't resolve the problems of the Slovak health-care sector; the problem requires that eight measures are carried out in order to help our health care. This is why we are exerting pressure with our resignation notices on the government for the third time," said Visolajsky. mf/df