Sasko Voices Guarantee That Health Care Will Be Provided for Patients

Bratislava/Nove Zamky, October 31 (TASR) - Health Minister Kamil Sasko (Voice-SD), speaking at a news conference held in Nove Zamky (Nitra region) on Thursday, voiced a guarantee that health care for patients in Slovakia will be provided. "I am positive that Slovak patients won't be in danger for a single minute," said Sasko in connection with the current situation in the health-care sector . "As I've been saying since the very beginning, I come from an honest doctors' family, and I don't believe that a Slovak doctor would abandon a Slovak patient. I simply don't believe that, as I know that doctors are decent people and that the patient's interests come first for them, as they do for me. And the way in which we can ensure that will be a subject of negotiations," said Sasko. In this connection, he called on doctors and all health-care workers to cooperate in seeking a common solution. "I invite anyone who is honest with the health-care sector to negotiations," he added. The minister pointed to Premier Robert Fico's (Smer-SD) statement on Wednesday (October 30) that transforming hospitals into joint-stock companies isn't on the table. He believes that one of demands of the Doctors Trade Union (LOZ) has thus been met. At the same time he declared that regardless of the resignation notices submitted by doctors, he'll initiate a very specific agenda as of November 11 in order to create a measurable plan for improving the situation in the sector "in order to achieve our common goal - much greater efficiency and preventing money outflows from the Slovak health-care sector". The minister reiterated that the "ceiling has been reached regarding the issue of doctors' salaries". Sasko said that the goal of his meeting with directors of Slovak hospitals on Wednesday was to set up a procedure for exchanging information. He also introduced them to the person who will be his 'extended hand' in the field. "In the coming weeks, this person will communicate directly with hospital directors, but above all with doctors, nurses and medical staff," explained Sasko. He wants to receive objective information and incentives from hospitals on how to improve the their situation. More than 2,700 doctors from hospitals across Slovakia began to file resignation notices en masse on Tuesday (October 29) to demonstrate their unhappiness with the situation prevailing in the Slovak health-care system. They are willing to continue negotiations and withdraw their resignations if the government starts meeting their demands. They mainly insist that the government should fulfil the points in a memorandum signed between LOZ and the then cabinet in 2022. At the same time, the doctors demanded that the government should publicly declare that state-run hospitals won't be transformed into joint-stock companies. ko/df