Gov't: Hospitals Won't Be Transformed into Joint-stock Companies in Current Term

Bratislava, December 4 (TASR) - State-run hospitals won't be transformed into joint-stock companies during the current electoral term, according to a Health Ministry-sponsored proposal approved by the cabinet on Wednesday. "The documents commit to paper public statements made by the premier and the health minister on the transformation, respectively on a rejection of transforming state-run institutional health-care facilities into joint-stock companies. The government is rejecting their transformation in the ninth electoral term with this document," states the ministry's explanatory report. The proposal is a response to demands raised by the Doctors Trade Union (LOZ). At the same time, the government has tasked Health Minister Kamil Sasko (Voice-SD) with submitting, by end of March 2025, draft specific rules for managing and supervising institutional health-care facilities founded by the ministry in order to make their functioning more efficient and transparent. More than 3,300 doctors from hospitals across Slovakia have already filed resignation notices in a show of displeasure with the situation prevailing in health care. They are willing to withdraw them if the government starts meeting their demands. They first and foremost insist that the points of a memorandum from 2022 should be met. One of their demands was that the government should guarantee that state-run hospitals won't be transformed into joint-stock companies. ko/df