Nurses See Hope in Contacting Parties and Special House Session

Nurses See Hope in Contacting Parties and Special House Session

Zilina, February 1 (TASR) – Nurses who have filed their notice en masse support the idea of summoning a special session of Parliament and will approach all the parliamentary political parties to this end later on Monday, chair of the Nurses and Midwives Trade Union (OZSaPA) Monika Kavecka said late on Sunday evening at an extraordinary meeting in front of Zilina Faculty Hospital.

“We see hope in the Slovak Parliament, which could put pressure on the Government to tackle the situation that has emerged,” said Kavecka, adding that nurses believe that a solution to the current emergency situation could be found in a discussion. “We’re ready to bargain and agree on a compromise solution,” she said, elaborating no further details about this for now.
Kavecka pointed to the fact that nurses in some other towns such as Presov, Trnava, Trencin, Dolny Kubin (Zilina region) and Martin (Zilina region) are quitting hospitals, too. “The Slovak health sector will miss nurses. It would take a bit longer if our proposals weren’t adopted, but it would result in the same situation anyway,” she said. According to her, the average age of a nurse in Slovakia is high, approaching 50 years, while younger people aren’t interested in becoming involved in this profession in Slovakia, mainly due to the low remuneration.
Nurses who have long been dissatisfied with the way in which their demands have been dealt with launched a protest action involving the mass submission of resignations on November 25, 2015. The House approved a law modifying their salaries at that time. This has been effective since January 2016, although President Andrej Kiska refused to ink it twice. Health-care workers complain that the law disregards their demands, but Health Minister Viliam Cislak (a Smer-SD nominee) finds the law fair and balanced.