Head of the Patients’ Association: We hear from politicians that the patient comes first. It’s just a phrase – TVNOVINY.sk

The year 2021 was again marked by a global pandemic. The healthcare system has experienced an onslaught and is still struggling with heavy workloads and overcrowded patients with covidos. But health care is needed by all patients, including non-people. Recalls the nurse and head of the Association for the Protection of Patients’ Rights, Mária Lévyová, who, looking back a year, says that it was extremely demanding from the patient’s point of view.

Everyone who needed help paid for it. “After the gradual second wave, exhausted paramedics failed to catch up with thousands of postponed procedures, and we have already reached the third wave, when hospitals began to close in front of non-ovidu patients again,” Lévyová recalls. It was not uncommon for patients to wait a year for their treatment. Or they didn’t live to see her.

The situation around the medical staff is not significantly managed either. “These professions are crucial for us these days, and yet the state has allowed thousands of them to leave the already underdimensioned system,” he says. It also attributes to the fact that health professionals are not sufficiently financially valued and also to the overall frustration with the functioning of health care.

The positive is few, but they will be found

The association considers the approval of the optimization of the hospital network to be one of the few favorable moments for the patient this year. Despite being a bold move that has earned a great deal of criticism, they see it as necessary.

“Slovak healthcare has been lacking a clearly defined direction for years, the most vulnerable article in the system – the patient – pays for the constant filling of holes. Without major systemic changes, the Slovak healthcare system would only have to wait another year of suffering and gradual disintegration, ”says Lévyová.

According to her, the optimization of the hospital network will bring transparent conditions for the definition and creation of a network of hospitals that will operate through the provided care at five levels. The reform will also include regular evaluation of the network and compliance with the set conditions.

“We also welcome the extended definition of the patient’s entitlement, which includes a minimum number of procedures, waiting lists, material and technical equipment, staff, on the basis of which the patient will know exactly what hospital he will receive. Last but not least, the optimization of the hospital network counts on defining the patient’s path, which should address the current situation, where patients often wander the system and do not know who to turn to, “he says.

The legislation also provides for a new minimum network of general outpatient clinics for adults as well as children and adolescents. As part of the changes, the network of specialists should be gradually strengthened. Lévy recalls that the basis for the proper functioning of the hospital network is, first and foremost, a functioning outpatient sector, which aims to ensure that only those patients who really need such care end up in the hospital.

According to her, the opening of the law on the scope and conditions of reimbursement of medicines, medical devices and dietetic foods, ie those intended for the diet of patients and consumption under medical supervision, should also be commended.

“It is important to pay attention to the availability of patients with drugs that have visible reserves. We believe that thanks to several amendments to this law, patients will be able to bring modern and effective treatment, commonly available to patients in other countries, including Slovakia, “recalls the head of the association.

Thousands of medics are in danger of leaving

A separate chapter is health care financing. Lévyová reminds that in Slovakia even during the crisis he did not miss a significant financial injection than in other countries. “On the contrary, the blow to patients was to reduce the payment for state policyholders in the last quarter of this year, as well as the draft budget for 2022, which is insufficient and counts on unrealistic savings,” he says.

We thus reached the historically lowest payment for the state insured, at the amount of 31 euros per month. He adds that this amount does not cover the real cost of patient health care. “In addition, we are entering the new year with the knowledge that hundreds of millions of euros will be missing from healthcare. If this does not change, patients will also feel the outflow of thousands of healthcare professionals from the system, “warns the head of the association.

Illustration image. Photo: TASR

The patient wants only one thing – health. Lévyová points out that with the priorities we have in Slovakia today, his path to it is much more difficult. “Even though we’ve been hearing politicians for years that the patient comes first, it’s just a phrase,” he says. Patients have been in an unenviable situation for years. The advent of coronavirus significantly worsened their prospects for affordable and successful treatment.

By the new year, patients want to finally become a priority for our politicians and to understand that days to weeks are crucial in the struggle for life, that spending months in pain is unbearable, and that each of us needs to be provided with timely treatment, from which not only a specific patient but also society as a whole will benefit. “Investing in healthcare and health is the best society-wide investment that will pay off for us all many times over,” he concludes.