In connection with the upcoming reform, there are serious concerns regarding the future of the emergency medical service. Representatives from the emergency medicine company and the Association of Cities and Towns of Slovakia share this concern. The Department of Health states that nothing is definitive and denies that the upcoming reform will reduce the quality of care provided.
Doctor Zuzana Pukancová has been responding to patients in an ambulance for 26 years, performing daily actions to save lives. According to information from the emergency medicine society, after the reform, doctors in ambulances will be partially replaced by paramedics with higher competencies.
"It is not so easy for a person without adequate experience to go there. This is about human lives, not the transport of material. This is not just the competence to write on paper and then find that the person has never done such a job in their life," says Pukancová, who is also a member of the emergency medicine society.
Doctors do not reject the change, but they emphasize that the reform needs time and sufficiently qualified personnel. They see issues in the education of rescuers.
"For a long time, education has not been adequately structured and changes regularly. A certain system must be introduced into this education, not only in the training of paramedics but also in continuous education," explains paramedic Richard Hainc.
"We expect that there will be at least one RLP crew in every district town where a general hospital has disappeared. However, if doctors are gradually replaced within the emergency health service, we view this as a significant threat to the quality of health services," explains ZMOS chairman Jozef Božik.
The Ministry of Health asserts that nothing is definitive yet. Health Minister Zuzana Dolinková (Hlas-SD) did not comment on the upcoming changes, as the law is prepared for interdepartmental review.
"I am convinced that the material is professionally prepared to ensure that the reform improves health care rather than endangers it. I also believe that we will meet the milestones of the recovery and resilience plan," says Dolinková.
The Association of Cities and Towns of Slovakia has announced that it wants to discuss the nationalization of the emergency medical service as part of the reform.
Source: STVR
