To achieve the availability, quality and efficiency of long-term palliative healthcare is the aim of legislation from the Ministry of Health, approved today by members of the OR. It will be care not only in medical institutions but especially in the home or other natural environment. The amendment of the law is all the more urgent, because currently in Slovakia there is a shortage of health facilities providing long-term health care and palliative health care, which makes this care unavailable to those who are dependent on it. To achieve this, it is part of a draft law amending the Act No. 576/2004 Coll. on health care, health care services the definition of long-term care, the definition of palliative healthcare and the definition of the scope of the data needed to monitor the availability and evaluation of the quality and effectiveness of such care. This bill complements the activities of social assistance facilities as well as nursing care as follow-up healthcare and long-term nursing care. The Ministry of Health foresees that sufficient and relevant data on the availability of long-term care will be obtained within a two-year period, on the basis of which the quality of this care will be evaluated and the subsequently adjusted method of financing it without the need for regulation by the Ministry. The draft law defines the support team, the application of a multi-disciplinary approach to healthcare provision, as well as the right of the person receiving healthcare to provide spiritual service and social assistance - thus also responding to trends in other landscapes.
In order to improve quality and better coordination of healthcare and prevent repeated hospitalizations, it is mandatory for healthcare providers who have concluded a contract with the health insurance company to collect legally determined data on care provided in long-term healthcare and to submit these data to the health insurance company and subsequently to the health insurance company in anonymous form to the Ministry of Health of the Slovak Republic. The law amendment has been effective since 1 August 2022.