BRATISLAVA, November 29, (WEBNOVINY) — At its extraordinary meeting on Monday night, the Cabinet of Iveta Radicova decided to declare a state of emergency in fifteen hospitals after an overwhelming majority of protesting hospital doctors rejected the offer of a pay rise of 300 euros and refused to withdraw their notices that run out at the end of the month. Prime Minister Radicova assured the citizens of Slovakia at the following news conference that the Cabinet’s decision and the subsequent measures will secure provision of all necessary health care. The declared state of emergency enables to order doctors to perform their work duty in order to secure health care and includes the right to ban a strike to some employees. The state of emergency is to be declared as of Tuesday and will not apply to the whole territory of Slovakia but only to thirteen districts and fifteen health care providers. The prime minister specified that the measure will affect university hospitals in Bratislava and Kosice, teaching hospitals in Trnava, Trencin, Zilina, Presov, Banska Bystrica children’s faculty hospitals in Bratislava and Kosice and hospitals in Bojnice, Trstena, Dolny Kubin, Cadca, Liptovsky Mikulas and in Poprad.
The prime minister and Health Minister Ivan Uhliarik announced that the state of emergency will not apply to doctors who have not submitted notices while doctors‘ salaries will not be reduced as it had been originally declared. After announcing the state of emergency, hospital directors will not have to abide by the Labor Code. Radicova announced that in six of the fifteen medical facilities the state of emergency will last only a few days, maximally a week.
The Cabinet has also decided that it will start to implement rationalization measures as of December 1 to optimize the numbers of wards and clinics, in order to secure the minimum network and not to have duplicate wards.
The prime minister again urged doctors to reconsider the offer from her cabinet and return to their patients. She restated that she respects doctors‘ work but that she cannot offer them a higher pay rise than 300 euros. „Not because we would not want, but because we have a commitment and a duty to responsibly handle revenues we have,“ she stated. According to her, the cabinet offered doctors a sum that it is able to guarantee. „I would like to turn to doctors again to consider the situation globally, not only in the Slovak Republic but also in the whole Europe,“ she said. The prime minister confirmed that negotiations with medical trade unions will continue.
The Health Ministry on Sunday started to send a ministerial order to all hospitals under its jurisdiction based on which hospital directors are obliged to increase salaries of all doctors by 300 euros on average as of next year based on a unilateral Memorandum signed by Prime Minister Iveta Radicova. The ministry was to decide on specific measures and the Cabinet on a state of emergency based on the number of doctors that will accept the proposal and take back their notices. Alternative solutions include merging of hospital departments, or even shutting down entire hospitals. Doctors from abroad could replace a lack of some doctors, too.
According to the Medical Trade Unions Association, as of the end of September of this year 2,411 doctors filed their resignation notices in 34 hospitals across Slovakia in an organized protest action. Subsequently about 400 of them withdrew their notices. Altogether 7,500 doctors work at patients’ beds in Slovakia. The Medical Trade Unions Association has four demands on the government: to observe the Labor Code, change the system of health care funding, stop transformation of hospitals to joint-stock companies, and increase wages of health care employees.
The Medical Trade Unions Association (LOZ) considers the declaration of a state of emergency an unprecedented act of crude and unjustifiable dictate against doctors whose only guilt is that in a democratic society they do not want to stay at their workplace after their notice period ends. LOZ Chairman Marian Kollar further said at Tuesday’s press conference of the LOZ leadership that the declaration of a state of emergency due to doctors’ resignation notices is inconsistent with democratic principles and moves Slovakia to the level of Latin American dictatorships.
“We believe that this will find an echo in EU institutions which we will turn to,” Kollar stated. However, he did not provide a specific answer to the question to which institutions they will turn to and what suggestions they will present. “We are considering all options, and we will use all institutions we can,” said LOZ Vice-Chairman Pavel Oravec, adding that the action of LOZ and the declaration of a state of emergency have already been reported by foreign press. “We are at least moral winners already now,” Kollar stated.
SITA