Kalavska Concedes Linking Health Reform with Her Own Fate

Bratislava, October 30 (TASR) – Health Minister Andrea Kalavska (a Smer-SD nominee) on Wednesday conceded that she could link a vote on the hospital-stratification reform in Parliament with a vote in her as a Government member.

According to Kalavska, the health reform gained “political” features towards the end, when she was advised on Monday to withdraw it from Parliament due to a lack of support, even among Smer MPs, and postpone it to a later date. Meanwhile, Slovakia is now four months from a general election.

Speaking on Wednesday, Kalavska described the request to withdraw the reform, allegedly made by Smer chief and former three-times prime minister Robert Fico, as non-standard and not particularly appropriate.

“The Slovak Parliament is able to agree on many silly things, but when it comes to something that can really help the people in Slovakia, you go to look for a million questionmarks,” she complained.

Kalavska was allegedly informed by Fico ahead of the planned vote that the reform wouldn’t be backed by Smer, the Slovak National Party, the far-right People’s Party Our Slovakia and We Are Family. Kalavska said that even if this wouldn’t have concerned entire caucuses, she decided not to risk the bill to flop.

She showed herself to be unwilling to postpone the reform any more, maintaining that it’s been well done in expert terms.

Commenting on her possible political future, Kalavska said that she’s received several offers from various parties, but she hasn’t been considering any of them. On the contrary, she’s rather pondering returning to her original profession as a doctor and university teacher.

Kalavska’s hospital-stratification reform is aimed, among other things, at identifying unused capacities in hospitals in order to redirect funds towards more effective purposes in order to boost the quality of health care.