A quarter of Slovak medical students want to practice medicine abroad by 5 percent more than in 2017, according to a survey done at the end of last year and the beginning of 2019 by the think tank HealthCare Institute, among students in the last three years of medical school. By comparison only 18.6 percent of their Czech fellows want to go abroad after graduation. Austria is the most popular destination of future Slovak doctors, followed by the Czech Republic and Germany, with Great Britain in free fall after Brexit. Salaries remain the main reason why Slovak medical students want to go abroad, followed by better quality of life and gaining international experience. Another reason is a lack of job offers in Slovakia in the specialization they are interested in. Among those who said they want to practice medicine in Slovakia, 80 percent plan to work in hospitals rather than open their own private practice.
The Slovak Health Ministry argues that the real data as compiled by its analysts show that the number of Slovak medical students who want to go abroad is much lower - only about 18 percent. Investment in the modernization of hospitals, and the extension of a post-graduate programme which aims at encouraging young doctors to train in those specializations which have a deficit of personnel in Slovakia, are measures that will persuade medical students to stay and work in Slovakia, according to the Health Ministry. The Association of Private Physicians has warned that insufficient financing of private practices from the side of insurance companies, increased bureaucracy, and too frequent changes in the healthcare legislation, demotivate young doctors from working in such facilities. Slovakia has a universal coverage healthcare system and private physicians complain that while employees and self-employed must contribute 14 percent of their monthly income to health insurance, the state pays only 3.2 percent of a sum which is pre-defined by the Government for its insured, such as pensioners, parents on maternity or paternity leave, students and unemployed people.
