Minister of Health of SR Kamil Šaško today evaluated his first 4 months in the management of the health department as a period of intense work, bold decisions and significant results. At a time when the resort faced challenging challenges, it was able to achieve key achievements that contribute to the stabilisation and development of one of the most important pillars of the company Þ healthcare provision for all patients in Slovakia.
From the first day in office, Minister Šaško focused on the first concrete measures. The most significant and most important step was the agreement with the Medical Trade Union Association, which was preceded by an increase of EUR 112 million in health workers' salaries. Following the agreement, the National Council of the Slovak Republic approved a key package of health laws, ensuring health stability and patient protection. This resulted in averting doctors' statements and a threat to health care provision.
–My job is to track every single euro that flows into the health system to serve as much as possible for the benefit of the patient, stated Šaško on his appointment as Minister. Therefore, a further important step was the diversion of the threat of collapse in the General Health Insurance Institution (HIC), where the Ministry introduced measures to stabilise financial management. There was a transparent tender procedure for the management of the insurance company, and the necessary management measures were taken to counter the threat of a recovery plan and thus the insurance company achieved effective management.
The Ministry has also achieved significant results at international level. During the visit to the Netherlands, the minister discussed the project to build a new children's oncology hospital, which is a step towards strengthening specialised healthcare in Slovakia. There was also a discussion with the European Commissioner for Health, which contributed significantly to the reversal of the fine for the Slovak Republic. Over the past months, several steps have been taken to streamline the operation of the Ministry. In the framework of consolidation measures, MZ SR reduced the number of employees by 10%. We started the first phase of centralization of hospital management. This year, it will travel to health by an extra billion euro. An additional EUR 212 million from the Recovery and Resilience Plan will contribute to the modernisation of health infrastructure, increasing the number of new or renovated hospital beds. Measures are currently under way to bring improvements in the availability of new innovative medicines for Slovak patients. I consider prevention to be crucial, so I will support it as much as possible and do everything I can to increase the availability of programmes and to inform people about the opportunities they have; said Šaško to one of his priorities and added: This period shows that even in difficult conditions we can achieve significant achievements. Health must stand on solid foundations - prevention, effective management and stable funding, concluded by the Minister of Health of the Slovak Republic.
