Slovak president asks Constitutional Court to examine law on health-care provision

Slovak President Andrej Kiska asked the Constitutional Court on Friday to examine whether a legal amendment on fees at outpatient departments complies with the Slovak Constitution because, according to him, it's in conflict with the protection of the rights of patients.

"The law hasn't provided protection against fees, but quite the opposite, it's triggered a new wave of payments. Instead of fees being forbidden by the law, health-care providers are still inventing new payments and unfortunately I have to say that the mind of a reasonable person is boggled by this trend," stated Kiska.

Among the few examples that he mentioned were fees relating to uncooperative children, electronic management, patient transfers and fines for failing to show up for a scheduled appointment.

According to Slovak Healthcare Minister Viliam Cislak, it would have been more constructive for Kiska and himself to meet and discuss the law. He thinks that the health-care system isn't in the kind of bad shape that Kiska has already indicated many times.

"I consider the claim to be rather unfortunate because if the court approves of the claim, the whole law will be suspended, and my efforts were aimed at tidying up fees. We've created clear rules regarding what fees can be collected for," stressed Cislak.

The law that came into force in April banned the levying of money for administrative purposes, for writing prescriptions and for confirming fitness for work. Preferential appointments were also scrapped. Endit