Doctors’ strike over, MPs’ turn now

Doctors’ strike over, MPs’ turn now

The Government and the Doctor Labour Unions Association arrived at a deal to resolve the health crisis and stave off the mass resignations of doctors on late Saturday (November 26).

"The crisis has been averted, there will be no collapse of hospitals. We've made a deal. We arrived at a consensus also on the eighth item of the memorandum and it is the biggest compromise we could have reached," Prime Minister Eduard Heger declared. He added that the Government had made a concession and would accommodate the final salary-related LOZ demand. The average hospital doctor salary with bonuses will thus go up from €3,493 monthly in 2022 to €4,574 in 2023. The agreement was reached in the absence of Finance Minister Igor Matovič, who left the negotiations before their conclusion.

The Slovak Medical Chamber (SMC) is satisfied that patients, doctors and the management of hospitals and self-governing regions can breathe a sigh of relief after the unions reached the agreement with the government. The chamber now wants to focus on undergraduate and postgraduate education issues in the near term with other partners. "Furthermore, also on the continuation of the realistic pricing of the list of procedures, the implementation of the DRG system and other tasks that benefit all doctors and the health sector," the chamber wrote in its statement.

The outcomes of the negotiations still need to be approved by the parliament. After reaching the agreement, the head of Doctor Labour Unions Association, Peter Visolajský, asked the MPs to support the legislative changes and urged them to take a responsible approach to the vote on approving the budget.

Source: TASR

Mojmir Prochazka, Photo: TASR

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