Pandemic COVID-19 disease deepened the problem with the lack of outpatient doctors. Therefore, in order to stabilise the network and help create new offices in scarce districts, the health department has allocated EUR 10 million from the Recovery and Resilience Plan to help start general doctors for adults and children and adolescents. Although the evaluation of the network of outpatient providers was established strictly on the basis of analyses and collected data from all over Slovakia, without the support and practical view of self-governing regions, the challenge could not be successful.
The cooperation of the Ministry with self-governing regions and the professional public is extremely important in implementing the investment aimed at supporting the opening of new general offices in the weak areas of Slovakia. This was the reason why the Ministry initiated cooperation on the call to municipalities from the outset, from the preparation of a methodology which determines where and to what extent the contributions should be allocated, to the additional information offered by a particular municipality.
The call itself is based on clear analytical results, i.e. the results of the evaluation of the state of the network, which have mapped out the current situation in the general medicine sector at district level and thus avoided possible politicisation of the measure. Today the Ministry of Health of the Slovak Republic can capture the dynamics of changes in the network and on an annual basis not only localize, but also quantify the current lack of general doctors and pediatricians at district level. This makes it possible to clearly and address subsidies to support the establishment of new general offices in regions where this is most needed.
In the current call, 21 successful candidates from 25 are registered by the Ministry so far and will be added even more by the summer when the call is closed. A total of 7 providers have already signed a contract and another 6 are in the process of signing a contract. By the end of 2025, the resort aims to finance the creation of 153 new clinics of general practitioners, with a total of 30 providers planned to support this year. For the first year, the Ministry's expectations are clear and take into account the reality of the actual capacities available.
The terms of the new call will be reviewed by the Ministry to reach out to the largest possible group of potential candidates while maintaining the main objective. The conditions to be met by the candidate himself are clearly defined. The doctor makes an application to attach 5 simple attachments. It is a diploma on education acquired, a code allocation decree, an extract from the criminal record, the signature of a model honor declaration and a state aid test completed (mandatory legislation).
The entire contribution process has been set up from the beginning in favour of and in order to help doctors so that it is as burdensome and bureaucratic as possible. The doctor is not obliged to document the use of money through any invoices and bank statements. The purpose is met if the doctor provides general outpatient care for up to 35 hours a week at the place where he received the allowance.
In the current period, self-governing regions freely and independently selected specific municipalities in deficient districts, which urgently need new general practitioners. To the selected municipalities, they added information on the spatial possibilities to establish an ambulance, the discounted amount of rents and other advantages offered by a particular municipality or self-governing region, thus helping the Ministry to motivate a higher number of doctors. This call for cooperation was offered by the Ministry to all self-governing regions in the interest of the most targeted support.
