The salaries of health workers are covered in the budget, and the health insurance companies for doctors, nurses and health workers in hospitals received the money and should have redistributed it to the hospitals. If the hospitals do not have this money, it is a question for their management, why they do not ask for it from the insurance companies. This was stated by the chairman of the Medical Trade Union Association (LOZ) Peter Visolajský in response to TASR.
- The chairman of LOZ claims that the salaries of health workers are covered by the health budget.
- Visolajský criticizes hospitals for not requesting funds from health insurance companies.
- ANS and AŠN warn against the negative consequences of the increase in labor costs.
- LOZ defends the reduction of working hours in accordance with the law.
- The LOZ agreement includes a personnel audit and modification of the Act on Employment.
He was reacting to the statements of the Association of Hospitals of Slovakia (ANS), but also of the Association of State Hospitals (AŠN) of the Slovak Republic, that the consequences of the contract between LOZ and the government are bringing disruption to the system. ANS mainly talks about the dramatic increase in labor costs, which, according to Visolajský, the association is introducing.
“The agreement on the wages of doctors, nurses and other health professionals in inpatient facilities is secured and covered in the health budget. The insurance companies will receive this money from the budget for this purpose, and they are supposed to provide the hospitals with the money to cover their costs for the wages set by law.” stated Visolajský for TASR.
According to him, nurses’ wages are the largest item in the hospitals’ wage costs. “And so it is definitely not possible to say that nurses’ wages are high in Slovakia. The Ministry of Health of the Slovak Republic itself states that The costs of faculty and university hospitals for salaries make up an average of 44 percent of hospital expenses, but this is the cost of all employees, of whom nurses are the most represented, according to the hospitals, the costs of purely doctors make up approximately 15% of hospital expenses,” the head of the LOZ explained.
According to Visolajský, the reduction of the weekly working time from 40 to 37.5 hours is only the harmonization of practice with the law, which says that if it is a continuous operation, the weekly working time must be 37.5 hours. He added that the agreement between LOZ and the government did not apply to private hospitals, but the weekly working time was also 37.5 hours in some non-state hospitals long before the agreement between LOZ and the government.
According to Visolajský, part of LOZ’s agreement with the government was that the Ministry of Health would conduct personnel audits in hospitals and assess the issue of hospital employees’ working hours. “On the other hand, part of the agreement is an amendment to the law that if a doctor has less than 0.5 full-time hours, from 2026 such a doctor will not be subject to the law on wages – that is, the amount of wages will not be guaranteed by law. That is why the statement of the Association of Hospitals of Slovakia is misleading,” he thinks.
ANS pointed out that the consequences of the contract on the establishment of social reconciliation in the health sector between LOZ and the government are bringing disruption to the system in the health sector. According to ANS, the situation was worsened by a dramatic increase in labor costs and at the same time a decrease in performance due to shorter working hours. AŠN SR also drew attention to the significant increase in personnel costs, which has a fundamental impact on the management of hospitals.
The Association of State Hospitals of the Slovak Republic, for example, reminded that some medical facilities already have to use more than 80 percent of the income from health insurance companies to cover salary costs, and thus there are no longer enough available resources to cover other costs. The expected increase in personal costs in 2025 compared to last year is approximately 180 million euros for all 24 hospitals associated in the AŠN SR.
