Current government won’t implement hospital reform
As expected, the current government won’t implement hospital reform. The coalition party Smer announced it won’t support the respective legislation in parliament after Health Minister Andrea Kalavská (Smer) declined its request to submit it as a constitutional bill that needs the opposition’s votes. Smer is afraid of political spillover as small regional hospitals and their departments will be closed gradually as part of the reform. Smer intended to share the political responsibility with the opposition parties but Kalavská deems it inappropriate to clog the Constitution with technicalities linked to hospitals. The reform was shelved by Smer’s leader Robert Fico and PM Peter Pellegrini declined to comment.
