The petitioner shall: Ministry of Health of the Slovak Republic
Name of the petition:
A petition for the granting of supplementary Midwives' programme II level and supplementary Neo-natal programme II level Hospital Snina, s.r.o.–,
It's quare: No.
Number of persons supporting the petition: 13,031
Date of delivery: 20.09.2023
Date of equipment: 31.10.2023
Type of equipment: Paragraph 5 (6) of Law No 85/1990 Coll. on petition law as amended - not evaluated
Reason for equipment:
On 20.09.2023 a petition entitled MZ SR was received to the mail office. A petition for the granting of supplementary Midwives' programme II level and supplementary Neo-natal programme II level Hospital Snina, s.r.o.By letter of 19.09.2023, submitted by the Chair of the Petitions Committee and also by a person appointed to represent the public authority (hereinafter referred to as the representative) The accompanying letter stated that the petition was signed by a total of 13 031 persons, 10 374 of whom were signed on 745 pcs in documentary form and 2657 supported the petition online.
The MZ SR covering letter of the representative together with the annexes accepted and after assessing the material and formal details of the documentation required by the Act on petition law found that the submission marked as "Petition for the granting of the Supplementary Midwive Programme II level and Supplementary Neonatological Programme II level Snina Hospital, s.r.o." on the signing sheets in paper and electronic form with a list of 13 031 persons who supported the petition in question is a petition according to the feeling of the law registered by the Slovak Republic in the Special Report of the Registry as petition under the zn. Pet 11/2023, which is the nature of the request.
In view of the fact that the petition is in the nature of the application, the Ministry of the Slovak Republic, as a public authority responsible for its execution, is obliged to arrange for the petition in question pursuant to § 5 (6) of the Act on petition law, according to which, if the content of the petition proves that the petition cannot be dealt with pursuant to § 5 (5) of the Act on petition law, the public authority responsible for the execution of the petition containing the request or the proposal will assess its content and send a written reply together with the statement of reasons to the representative within the period under § 5 (5) of the Act on petition law. Pursuant to Article 5d (1) of the Law on Petitions, if the petition is supported by at least 10,000 persons, it will be discussed by the competent public authority with a representative and a petition committee for the whole territory of the Slovak Republic.
In accordance with the above provisions of the law on petition law of MZ SR as a public authority materially competent to handle the petition, he submitted the following reply to the representative.
In December 2022, the Ministry of Health of the Slovak Republic decided to assign hospitals to the hospital network and to issue the first list of categorised hospitals in accordance with § 45 (7) of Act No. 540/2021 Coll. on Classification of Institutional Healthcare.
Decree No 316/2022 Coll. on the categorisation of institutional health care lays down the conditions that each hospital must fulfil in order to be able to provide a particular programme. These conditions include special material-technical equipment, special staffing, as well as minimum performances and other conditions to be met by hospitals. All the conditions laid down by the Decree have been defined by medical experts and are important for patient safety reasons.
In the obstetrics programme, meeting the minimum number of births per hospital per year is an important condition. That limit is 800 births per year. The hospital in Snina provided 291 births in 2019 and 300 births in 2021. This trend was also repeated in 2022, where the hospital provided only 265 births. This means that the hospital did not meet the conditions laid down by the experts and therefore it was not possible to allocate the Midwifery programme in the form of a supplementary programme.
Quality and safe care for both the patient and the newborn should be ensured by the hospital's obligation to ensure continuous presence of anesthesiology (i.e. 24/7), neonatal care, infant intensive care unit (JISN).
In view of the above, the Ministry decided not to approve the Supplementary Midwives' Programme II level and the Supplementary Neonatology Programme II level Hospital Snina, s.r.o. We take the petitions of the citizens of Snina with full seriousness and the petitions were discussed with the representative and petition committee at the MZ SR on 19.10.2023.
By sending a letter to the representative of the Slovak Republic, which communicated the outcome of the petition, entitled "Petition for granting the Supplementary Midwives' Programme II level and the Supplementary Neonatology Programme II level Snina Hospital, s.r.o." the Slovak Republic considers the petition to be equipped in accordance with the provisions of § 5 (6) of the Act on petition law.
Place: In Bratislava– Date:2 November 2023