From 1.7.2024 by modification Act No. 576/2004 Coll. on health care, health care services and amending certain laws the provision of outpatient emergency services for children and adolescents has been adjusted.
From July 2024, fixed outpatient emergency services for children and adolescents have been open on working days from 16 to 20 hours and on working days from 8 to 20 hours.
Prior to the treatment, fixed outpatient emergency services for children and adolescents were available for patients from 16 to 22 hours each day and on working days from 7 to 22 hours.
At the same time, the obligation of general outpatient care providers for children and adolescents to provide healthcare every working day of the week has been extended to at least 35 hours per week (without additional office hours), which must be provided at least once a week by 16 hours. The aim of this adjustment is to ensure a balanced distribution of the primary paediatric hours in the clinics so that their services are available every day during the working week and that patients can visit the general ambulance as the first choice during the day instead of visiting outpatient emergency services in the afternoon or evening.
This is one of the other crisis stabilisation measures which responds to the current insufficient personnel capacities of primary paediatricians. Primary pediatricians provide medical care for 1.1 million persons (children and adolescents) in the Slovak Republic. K 1.1.2024 in Slovakia lacks 20% primary paediatricians (236 doctors) and almost every second paediatrician is in retirement age.
Outpatient emergency services for children and adolescents are mostly provided by the same primary pediatricians who operate their paediatric clinics during the day.
The purpose is to maintain the availability of outpatient emergency services for children and adolescents in Slovakia to the extent that it respects the current crisis situation in primary paediatrics and the limited personnel capacities of primary paediatrics at present.
Without the adoption of stabilisation measures, the sustainability and availability of not only outpatient emergency services for children and adolescents, but in particular the sustainability of the healthcare provided for children and the maturation of primary paediatrics by day are at risk.