Minister for Health Zuzana Dolinková and Executive Director of the Slovak National Centre for Human Rights (SNSĽP) Silvia Porubänová signed a Memorandum of Cooperation on 1 July 2024 at the Ministry. The common objective is to develop effective preventive mechanisms and raise awareness of sexual harassment in health care workplaces. Both sides thus seek to ensure a safer and healthier working environment. The second area is to ensure the training of health workers on the human rights of patients with mental illness. The extension of mutual cooperation is a natural continuation of joint activities so far and follows the signature of the first Memorandum from April last year.
–I have to admit that I am concerned about the results of recent research that more than half the health workforce experienced unwanted sexual attention and more than 6% of the staff experienced sexual pressure. The working environment of our health professionals is not indifferent to us at the Ministry. On the contrary, we want to create a safe environment in which they can work well, Minister for Health Zuzana Dolinková explained.
According to the research, it was mainly verbal attacks, commenting on appearance or unwanted touching, and faced by both women and men. Due to the alarming results, cooperation between the Ministry of Health of the Slovak Republic, the Slovak National Centre for Human Rights and Medical Devices is strengthened and expanded.
It will include, for example, the training of workers and medical staff on sexual harassment issues, the introduction of effective and preventive mechanisms such as a mechanism for reporting and dealing with sexual harassment cases, the definition of sexual harassment as a serious breach of labour discipline and the inclusion of a ban on sexual harassment directly in the employee's Code of Conduct. The aim is to reach out to selected healthcare establishments and to develop the mechanisms described above so that they can be implemented in other healthcare establishments.

The SNSĽP research showed not only the high prevalence mentioned above, but also what prevention and protection of victims should be targeted. Patients are harassing in a third of cases, but the most frequent comes harassment by superiors, in the company of other colleagues, colleagues or patients. This suggests that sexual harassment is part of the culture in the workplace, and victims may fear being excluded from the collective for expressing dissatisfaction. This is confirmed by the finding that more than 93% of respondents and respondents have not addressed their experience of harassment with anyone, and an alarmingly low awareness of which institutions can turn to is also confirmed. said Silvia Porubänová, executive director of the Slovak National Centre for Human Rights and she added: "Rights to increase reporting and reduce tolerance for sexual harassment in the workplace we want to focus in cooperation with the Ministry of Health. We believe that these steps will also inspire other institutions and help us to create a society where sexual harassment is not acceptable.
The Memorandum of Cooperation also aims to ensure the training of health workers on the human rights of patients hospitalised in connection with their mental illness. This role stems from the resolution of the Slovak Government's Council on Human Rights, National Minorities and Gender Equality of June 2023. In this context, the Slovak Ministry of Health has already established informal cooperation with SNSĽP and Slovak psychiatric company. The aim is to develop educational modules covering the human rights of patients and healthcare professionals, means of restraint, involuntary hospitalisations and other areas.