Nurses Expect Systemic Changes from New Health Minister Drucker

The Slovak Nurses and Midwives Chamber (SKSaPA) expects new Health Minister Tomas Drucker (a Smer-SD nominee) to make systemic changes and restore trust in the health-care sector, chamber president Iveta Lazorova has told TASR.

SKSaPA welcomed Drucker’s nomination for the post, although he isn’t an expert directly from the sector. Nurses believe that he, as a manager and strategist, will be able to find the right cure for a health sector that is in crisis. It also thinks that he’ll respect health-care workers.

“By nominating a crisis manager to run the sector, Prime Minister Robert Fico has confirmed that the health-care sector is in crisis, while nurses have been pointing to this problem for a long time. We strongly believe that minister Drucker will bring conceptual systemic changes that will provide high-quality health care not only to the satisfaction of patients, but also to that of health-care workers,” said Lazorova, who offered Drucker her professional expertise for shaping the health-care chapter of the Government Manifesto.

Doctors would also like to participate in preparing the Manifesto. The Slovak Medical Chamber (SLK) and the Slovak Medical Association (SLS) called on Drucker last week to involve them in this process. They find expert involvement in shaping state health-care policy all the more important in a situation in which the sector is new to the minister in terms of management.

The Nurses and Midwives Union views Drucker’s appointment as a sign that the sector is changing direction. Its boss Monika Kavecka expects Drucker to push for the return of nurses who quit earlier this year via mass resignations. “We hope that the new minister is aware of how important and irreplaceable nurses and midwives are for Slovak patients and that he’ll launch constructive communication with us,” she said.