Sasko Believes Agreement on LOZ's Demands Can Be Reached on Wednesday

        Bratislava, December 13 (TASR) - I believe that on Wednesday, December 18, more points from the memorandum of the medical trade union can be approved and that an agreement can be reached, stated Health Minister Kamil Sasko (Voice-SD) following the government session on Friday, adding that if the union isn't concerned about doctors' salaries, it should say so by Monday, December 16.
        The minister stressed that no extraordinary situation has been declared and that no one has been considering one. According to him, of the 18 demands of the Medical Trade Union Association (LOZ), agreement has been found on nine of them. He agrees with five more, but these concern such fundamental changes that they must form part of a regular legislative process in the first quarter of next year.
        "I'm asking the trade unionists to say by Monday whether or not they are concerned about salaries. If I'm told that it isn't about salaries or that what [hospital] directors are already offering is a reasonable solution, I believe that on Wednesday the remaining resolutions will be approved at a government meeting," said Sasko, adding that if it isn't about salaries, everything can be agreed on Wednesday.
        Sasko stated that he doesn't have a mandate for the salary demands, reiterating that according to LOZ's statements, it isn't concerned about salaries. He mentioned an offer concerning salaries made by hospital directors. "Already today, the hospital directors are making an offer, and they have my full support in this - doctors who work in hospitals on a full-time basis and spend all their time at the bedside of Slovak patients [can have] a full coefficient, 10 percent," he said, adding that for others, who also have other incomes, the coefficient would remain at 6.4 percent.