Health Minister Sasko Believes New Health-care Package Will Pass in Parliament

Bratislava, January 30 (TASR) - The government approved a set of healthcare legislative changes as part of the agreement with the Medical Trade Union (LOZ) on Thursday, with Health Minister Kamil Sasko (Voice-SD) expressing confidence that the changes, which include salary increases for doctors, the establishment of staffing norms in hospitals, and reduced working hours for health-care workers, will also be approved by the House. "I can confirm that the discussion was extremely challenging, but we managed to reach an agreement on all points as outlined in the contract with LOZ. The package will be presented tomorrow for discussion in the House in fast-track procedure, and I expect it to be approved in this form," said the minister. The proposal is expected to be discussed in parliament next week. The changes are intended to ensure that doctors' salaries increase in line with the original level before consolidation. The weekly working hours for health-care workers in hospitals should be reduced from 40 to 37.5 hours, with hospitals expected to implement this by September. At the same time, the staffing norms in hospitals should be enshrined in law, effective from 2026. The obligations of health insurance companies and the Supervision of Health Care (UDZS) should also be modified. The measures introduced in connection with the mass resignations of doctors and efforts to ensure the availability of health care, which were implemented at the end of last year, should be abolished. "The impacts have been discussed with the Ministry of Finance, and I can confirm that they will be fully covered by the public health insurance budget," he explained. According to him, the ministry is expecting a range of cost-saving measures that are already being worked on. An inter-ministerial working group is also expected to be set up, within which the health and finance ministries will conduct monthly assessments and monitoring of the measures. lin/mcs