The petitioner shall: Ministry of Health of the Slovak Republic
Name of the petition:
–Petitions for maintaining NsP Brezno, n.o. in its entire range of medical activities provided and for its inclusion in the level II network of hospitals.,

It's quare: No.
Number of persons supporting the petition: 29 772
Date of delivery: 31.03.2023
Date of equipment: 21.06.2023
Equipment: § 5 (6) of Law No 85/1990 Coll. on petition law as amended - not evaluated
Reason for equipment:
On 31.03.2023 a petition entitled MZ SR was received to the mail office –The petition for maintaining NsP Brezno, n.o. in its entire range of medical activities provided and for its inclusion in the level II hospital network.–, signed by 29,772 people on signature sheets, of which 2025 people online. MZ SR submission designated as ÞPetition for the maintenance of NsP Brezno, n.o. in the whole of its current scope of provided health activities and for its inclusion in the network of hospitals level II and after an assessment of its material and formal requirements in the context of the provisions of Act No 85/1990 Coll. on petitioning law as amended (hereinafter referred to as "the Act on petitioning law') was registered in the Special Report of the MZ SR Registry as petition under Article 4/2023, which has the character of the application.
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. A working meeting at the Slovak Academy of Sciences took place on 26.04. 2023. MZ SR By letter dated 27.04.2023, she informed you that, in accordance with Section 5 (5) of the Act on petition law, she will complete the petition submitted by you within 60 working days of receipt of it.

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.
MZ SR proceeded within the meaning of § 45 (7) of the Act on the categorisation of institutional health care and on the amendment of certain laws as amended (hereinafter referred to as Act No. 540/2021 Coll. on the categorisation of institutional health care) decided to conditionally include hospitals in the network and issued the first list of categorised hospitals. It also allocated so-called supplementary programmes to hospitals, i.e. programmes in addition to the compulsory programmes requested by the hospital.
The goal of the Ministry and the optimisation of the hospital network is to increase the quality and accessibility of healthcare provision to citizens throughout Slovakia. The new hospital network introduces new requirements for:

Compliance with these requirements will be checked. The hospital will only be able to provide specific performances if it meets the required standards. This will ensure a higher quality of healthcare provided to patients, but also better working conditions for doctors, nurses, midwives and all health professionals. NsP Hospital Brezno was included in Level I and 22 programmes were approved from the required 27 complementary II and III programmes.
Details on the evaluation of hospitals and the inclusion of the hospital in Brezno on level I:
The Ministry, when creating a network of categorised hospitals, proceeded according to § 10 (2) of Act No. 540/2021 Coll. on the categorisation of institutional health care and the Ministry conditionally assigns hospitals to the network if they are met

  1. conditions for networking, which are the geographical availability of institutional care, the number of insured persons in the catchment area of the hospital
  2. the preconditions for the provision of mandatory programmes under the programme profile, which are:

From the point of view of meeting individual criteria, in case of the criterion of existence of medical programmes NsP hospital Brezno provides a relatively broad spectrum of Level II programmes, which means that in the programmes it reaches at least 20% of the level II average cases in medical services falling within the programme level. The hospital fulfilled the conditions for providing up to 22 additional programmes, of the required 27.
Gynaecological programme, Burning programme, Nonvascular intervention programme, Infectological programme and Paediatric Immunology and Allergology program within the meaning of Annex 1 of Decree No. 316/2022 Coll. can not be provided in hospital level I.
From the point of view of meeting the criteria for networking, which is fulfilling the limits on the number of performances for selected medical services, the hospital fulfils only 56% for level II programmes. Both 2019 and 2021 have been evaluated to take into account, as far as possible, time fluctuations caused by COVID. From the point of view of the criterion of special staffing, the hospital meets this criterion at 48%. Which means the hospital has no experts. Hospitals have been provided for a transitional period of 12 months for the approval of supplementary programmes Neurological programme, Traumatologic programme, gastroenterology and hepatology programme to meet the condition of special staffing to meet the conditions for the provision of the programmes. In view of the above, the Ministry decided to include the hospital in Level I, but with the possibility to provide up to 22 programmes from Level II.

All level II hospitals are obliged to meet the full range of programmes of this level as well as the limits (performance numbers), personnel and material technical conditions. The compliance rate (number of performances, special personnel, material-technical requirements and quality) will be evaluated annually. In the event of under-compliance with the above conditions, a sanctioning mechanism (from a warning through a level reduction, to a reduction in payments from health insurance companies) is established. Therefore, as a level I hospital, the management of the hospital can NsP Brezno to use this position as an advantage and to pursue programmes in which, as a hospital, they are strong, which the inhabitants of the region need to build excellence in specific areas.
The goal of the Ministry and the optimisation of the hospital network is to increase the quality and accessibility of healthcare provision to citizens throughout Slovakia. MZ SR communicates with the hospital management of NsP Brezno, and twice in the past weeks visited the hospital. At the same time MZ SR discussed with the Petition Committee. Petitions of citizens of the region around We take the Brezná with full seriousness, the suggestions made in the petition and the suggestions made during the negotiations. We also see problematic accessibility due to terrain and mountain area. This is why level I hospitals, and therefore the Brezno hospital, have the possibility to provide programmes from a range of 32 complementary programmes and 18 optional programmes, so as to ensure access to healthcare for citizens. And the hospital was approved up to 22 programs.
The law leaves hospital I levels the greatest flexibility in providing care in the width and spectrum according to the needs of the region in which they operate and the ambitions of hospital management. The hospital can thus profile in specific specialties beyond extensive outpatient care or overnight health care. At the same time, according to the Act 540/2021 Coll. on the categorization of institutional care, hospitals have the possibility to apply for a transfer to a higher level or to provide additional programmes.
By sending a letter to the representative of the Ministry of Health, by which he communicated the outcome of the petition's equipment called "Petition for the maintenance of NsP Brezno, n.o. in its entirety provided health activities and its inclusion in the network of hospitals II. level" he considered the petition to be equipped in accordance with the provisions of § 5 (6) in conjunction with 5d (1) of the Act on petition law.

Place: In Bratislava– Date:26 June 2023