Kalavska Presents Hospital Stratification Project as Constitutional Law

Bratislava, July 30 (TASR) – Health Minister Andrea Kalavska (a Smer-SD nominee) has presented for interdepartmental comments proceedings a proposal for hospital stratification reform in the form of a draft constitutional law, TASR learnt on Tuesday.

Kalavska wants the whole political spectrum to agree on the project, as indicated to head of Smer-SD Robert Fico. The governing Most-Hid party and opposition Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) party have both stated that they’ll support the reform project.

The draft will undergo fast-track interdepartmental comments proceedings. “It sets the main pillars of stratification in order to ensure that every citizen is equally entitled to accessible and quality health care,” the Health Ministry told TASR.

Kalavska is due to present the project to the Government on August 21. As she’s called on both coalition and opposition parties to support what is set to become one of the biggest reforms of the Slovak health-care system, she’s stated that she’s willing to negotiate with representative of the parties.

Other parties have taken up a rather reserved stance towards the project, stating that they’ll wait for the final version of the material. For example, head of the Slovak National Party (SNS) Andrej Danko stated that he doesn’t want the project to lead to the closure of hospitals, with Kalavska responding that it won’t come to that. According to her, the project will clearly define the tasks of every hospital.

“We estimate that if we don’t implement any changes by 2030, we’ll lack approximately 3,100 doctors and almost 10,000 nurses,” stated the ministry in defence of the project.

Should the constitutional draft be approved, it will enter into force as of January 2024.