Hospital doctors are prepared to file their resignation notices en masse by the end of October, with 2,462 doctors already having drafted them, the head of the Doctors Trade Union (LOZ) Peter Visolajsky announced at a press conference on Tuesday.
Visolajsky underlined that there is still time for the government to settle matters around the negotiating table.
Thousands of doctors from university and faculty hospitals, the majority of small hospitals as well as privately owned hospitals, from the most overburdened departments such as surgery, gynecology, cardiology and medical wards are ready to leave by the end of the month. "As Slovakia has learnt repeatedly, running Slovak hospitals without these doctors is impossible," noted Visolajsky, adding that the resignation notices are growing in number with each passing day.
It is of cardinal importance for LOZ to have a system in place that will keep health-care personnel in hospitals. LOZ also insists on compliance with eight points of a memorandum, signed by representatives of doctors and the government back in 2022. "Addressing salaries alone won't resolve the problems of the Slovak health-care sector; the problem requires that eight measures are carried out in order to help our health care. This is why we are exerting pressure with our resignation notices on the government for the third time," said Visolajsky.
The head of the Association of Slovak Towns and Villages (ZMOS) Jozef Bozik warned that the announced mass resignations of doctors in hospitals would mean a total collapse of the health-care system and it wouldn't be possible to ensure health care for the public.
According to Bozik, health care is in a very bad situation not only in Slovakia, but also in the whole of Europe, with the system declining in the last five to ten years. "This decline will continue regardless of whether doctors in hospitals get what they demand or not, and this is also because health care accessibility is receding, and to talk about the quality of health care in Slovakia is - whether we like it or not - a very relative concept at the moment," Bozik opined.
The House Health Committee Vice-chair Oskar Dvorak (PS) declared that the problem with health sector emerged already in the moment when the Government decided to slash resources earmarked for this portfolio and Health Minister Kamil Sasko (Hlas-SD) doesn't really engage in dialogue with the doctors.
Progressive Slovakia also called on Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD) to assume responsibility over the health sector, as the collapse of hospitals is imminent.
Source: TASR
