At a press conference on Tuesday, the head of the parliamentary group of the Slovenian Democratic Party (Slovenska demokratska stranka – SDS), MP Jelka Godec, presented the SDS party’s request to convene an extraordinary session of the National Assembly on the catastrophic situation in the healthcare sector. “Unlike the coalition and Prime Minister Robert Golob, who apparently believe that the healthcare reform or the problems in healthcare should be dealt with on the streets, we in the opposition or the SDS party believe that things should be solved in the government or in the National Assembly,” Godec said. The President of the SDS party also spoke on the matter, and he also distanced himself from the artificial creation of conflict between doctors and patients.
“The healthcare crisis cannot be solved by artificially creating conflict between doctors and patients. The patient, the doctor and the nurse are an inseparable whole of the healthcare system,” wrote the opposition leader, Janez Janša.
Godec went on to say that in view of the catastrophic situation in healthcare, they propose certain recommendations to be adopted by the National Assembly in relation to the government. The National Assembly, she said, should urge the Golob government to immediately propose an amendment to the Public Procurement Act to reintroduce reference prices in the field of purchasing medical supplies. This would make the prices of these materials comparable to those on the European market.
“The funds obtained, and the difference, which is now going into different pockets, should be systematically directed towards eliminating wage disparities or eliminating waiting times,” Godec further proposed. The second recommendation to the Government of the Republic of Slovenia is to prepare and propose a new salary system in the healthcare sector within 30 days, in cooperation with the trade union and statutory organisations in the field of healthcare. At the same time, she added, the Government of the Republic of Slovenia should prepare a proposal for the elimination of wage disparities in all other parts of the public sector and start negotiations for a new wage system with those parts of the public service sector that form a rounded whole and that want either a separate salary system or a separate pillar within the current framework.
The government should prepare a programme for the systematic return of Slovenian doctors from abroad
The National Assembly calls on the Government of the Republic of Slovenia, in cooperation with all parliamentary parties, experts, professional and other interest organisations of the healthcare sector and patient associations, to prepare, within 30 days, a law on intervention measures in the healthcare sector, which should:
1. temporarily activate all available reserves in all parts of the healthcare system and additional resources to ensure that healthcare is provided as soon as possible to all those who pay for compulsory health insurance;
2. prepare a programme for the systemic return of Slovenian healthcare workers (doctors and nurses) who, due to the unregulated situation in the healthcare sector and inadequate valuation of their work, have left for other professions or have moved abroad.
Domen Mezeg
