Minister for Health Zuzana Dolink has decided to set things straight. The reform team for the Optimisation of the hospital network, which operated on the Resort during previous governments, created a 3 000-page decree for the categorization of institutional health care, but without a methodology for creating a network of hospitals, which was to be issued in 2022 by decree. They prepared the whole reform without sufficient communication with representatives of hospitals, the sector and, in particular, regions. It wrongly classified constitutional health institutions and gave Denmark as a model, which does not correspond to the situation in Slovakia with its infrastructure, geographical accessibility and resources in the system. Minister Dolink has found inadequately prepared reform on the table and has been correcting errors after the predecessors for months.
The former government and department management had a lot of talk about how to change Slovak hospitals and shift Slovak health. Instead, they only threatened the functioning of constitutional health institutions and ambulances. They also caused dysfunctional waiting times in hospitals, lack of communication with hospital representatives and no longer heard the voice of the regions. appointed by Minister of Health Zuzana Dolink. The Minister of Health blames the predecessors who prepared the Optimization of the hospital network, that they focused only on hospitals and completely ignored the patient's journey (i.e. outpatient health care, emergency medical services, etc.). Moreover, the decisions of hospitals following the predecessors were not in line with the operating permits and the UN forced hospitals to carry out non-vocational activities.
Previous governments promised to change Slovak health. Instead, they threatened the functioning of ambulances and hospitals. They also caused dysfunctional waiting times in hospitals, so we want to ensure that patients are entitled to surgery within a specified period of time from 1.1.2025. If the time limit is not respected, they will be entitled to an operation abroad.
–We have said from the outset that such a reform is not sufficiently prepared. We made more than 1,000 comments to her. The then government promised us that they would listen to experts, regions, municipalities, unfortunately, the dialogue was not sufficient. said President ANS Marián Petko.
