LOZ: Doctors in Several Hospitals File Refusals to Work Overtime

Bratislava, December 16 (TASR) - Hospital doctors all over Slovakia filed refusals to work night and weekend shifts on Monday, the Doctors' Trade Union (LOZ) has announced on a social network, adding that this concerns hundreds of doctors working at hospitals in Presov, Bratislava, Banska Bystrica and Kosice. For example, refusals to work overtime were filed by 267 doctors at the J.A. Reiman Faculty Hospital in Presov, while 281 doctors did so at the Bratislava University Hospital and 340 doctors at the Louis Pasteur University Hospital in Kosice. The Bratislava-based National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases has registered 92 refusals to work night and weekend shifts, and 216 refusals have been submitted at the F.D. Roosevelt Faculty Hospital in Banska Bystrica. Health Minister Kamil Sasko (Voice-SD) has convened a special meeting of the sectoral tripartite for Monday afternoon. He believes that the meeting will result in an agreement on a compromise with LOZ. However, LOZ in reaction announced that it wants to hold talks in a narrower format. More than 3,300 doctors from hospitals across Slovakia have 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. ko/df