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Uhliarik: Health Ministry Has Done Good Job Since Change of Leadership
Monday 18 Octtber 2010 Zoom in | Print page
Bratislava, October 18 (TASR) - Good work has been done in the health care sector in the past three months, notwithstanding the close to €200-million debt that the previous government left in the sector, Health Minister Ivan Uhliarik (Christian Democrats/KDH) told a press conference on Monday.
The debt translated into poorer services for patients and a lower level of satisfaction among both patients and medical workers, he said.
The current ministry leadership is facing a tough task - restoring trust in medical personnel and boosting their credit. "I believe that we'll accomplish recovery in the Slovak health care sector," said Uhliarik.
According to him, the ministry has launched cost-saving measures, with redundancies saving 15 percent of salary expenditures by the end of 2010. Meanwhile, the salaries of newly-appointed heads of state-run faculty hospitals are 20 percent lower than those received by their predecessors.
The ministry has submitted four amendment drafts, three of which are currently under debate in Parliament. The initiatives are designed to improve the status of patients vis-a-vis the health care sector and protect them from excessive charges for medicines.
The transformation of state-owned hospitals into joint-stock ventures should be resumed after the process was halted by the previous government. Uhliarik emphasised that this doesn't constitute privatisation, as the facilities will remain 100-percent owned by the state.
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