Doctors Can Once Again Apply for Grant to Set Up New Outpatient Clinics

        Bratislava, August 7 (TASR) - General practitioners and paediatricians can once again apply for a grant to set up new outpatient departments, Health Minister Zuzana Dolinkova (Voice-SD) told a press conference on Wednesday.
        Those interested can send in their applications until the end of 2025. A total of €4 million has been allocated from the recovery plan for the third round of the call.
        This is the third opportunity for doctors to apply for a non-refundable financial contribution to set up a new outpatient clinic. The amount of the grant will depend on the district's degree of vulnerability in terms of the shortage of physicians, and it is intended for black (€80,000), red (€70,000) and orange (€60,000) districts. A map of these is available on the ministry's website.
        "I'd also like to call on all doctors, providers of health care, including general care for adults and also for children and adolescents, and motivate them to open new outpatient departments in the districts that are today marked as the worst, that is, the black districts. Because there we need to increase as much as possible the availability of daily primary outpatient care," stressed Dolinkova, noting that Slovakia currently lacks 533 adult general practitioner outpatient clinics and 236 primary paediatrician outpatient departments.
        The recipients of grants will undertake, among other things, to operate a general practice in the district for at least five years. Otherwise, they will have to give back all or part of the funding.
        The health minister added that the ministry registered a total of 140 applications for grants for setting up new outpatient departments in the first two calls.