MORNING NEWS HIGHLIGHTS - Friday, December 13, 2024 - 9 a.m.

TASR brings a quick morning overview of the most important events seen in Slovakia on the previous day (Thursday, December 12): BRATISLAVA - The opposition Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) party is calling on President Peter Pellegrini not to sign legislation related to measures to ensure that constitutional health care is available, which was approved by the House on Wednesday (December 11), and to use his right of veto, TASR learnt from the party's spokesman Ondrej Sprlak on Thursday. "We call on President Peter Pellegrini not to sign the 'hostage law' that would send doctors to prison for a year. The president must send a clear signal that Slovakia will be a country in which problems are resolved systemically and not by criminalising medical staff. If President Peter Pellegrini signs this proposal, he will become co-responsible for the further deterioration of the Slovak health-care system, in which a doctor will face a year in prison instead of gratitude for saving a human life," said SaS head Branislav Groehling. The party has repeatedly stated that the new legislation resolves nothing. SaS MP Tomas Szalay noted that it would only deepen frustration in the health-care sector and could lead to a further exodus of doctors. "This law is not only ineffective, but also dangerous. Doctors who save lives face a year in prison. This is unacceptable. At the second reading, we proposed returning the law for refinement, but the coalition ignored our comments," said Szalay. ZARNOVICA - The state will spend some €20,000 on disposing of expired COVID-19 tests from the period of the coronavirus pandemic, which are currently located in the Interior Ministry's central warehouse in the town in Zarnovica (Banska Bystrica region), Interior Minister Matus Sutaj Estok (Voice-SD) has told journalists, adding that tests worth some €10 million are stored in the warehouse. "I think that Slovak citizens could have obtained much more important things for the €10 million than these boxes behind us, which will be destroyed soon, as the law obliges us to do," said the minister. He pointed out that the country-wide testing that took place during the term of Igor Matovic's government cost over €1 billion, with €350 million spent on the tests themselves. According to Sutaj Estok, there are 4 million unused "sticks" for testing in the warehouse along with 2 million antigen tests that have expired. "With such irresponsible behaviour, they endangered not only lives and health, but also Slovakia's public finances, and I firmly believe that the COVID team will also look into how is it possible to manage the state in such a way that it incurs economic and financial damage amounting to €10 million," said Sutaj Estok. The Interior Ministry's crisis management section chief Ervin Erdelyi noted that the tests expired last year, or maybe even earlier. They will be destroyed by a private company that won a tender, he said, adding that the company will burn them. BRATISLAVA - Artificial intelligence (AI) is making inroads into health care, transport and the military, revolutionising people's lives, and Slovakia should thus harness AI's potential, especially to make the country function better, said President Peter Pellegrini at Bratislava Castle on the occasion of the Itapa conference, which focused on this topic. "Artificial intelligence is revolutionising our lives and changing the way we work in ways we might not yet imagine, which is why it's important that we talk about these things. On the one hand, artificial intelligence brings a huge number of advantages and positives, but on the other, it also brings a number of new phenomena that we'll have to talk about and from which we'll have to be able to protect ourselves in a realistic way," said Pellegrini. The head of state stressed that AI applications make people's lives easier by creating content that they can use effectively. In the same way, AI is making inroads into traffic regulation and the military and security sector, where various systems can recognise faces or monitor human movement. It's also playing an important role in health care, he stated, where it can efficiently evaluate samples from CT scans or X-rays, and it will also be key in the future for diagnosis. Slovakia should thus open up to new technologies, including artificial intelligence. KOSICE - Nine doctors at Louis Pasteur University Hospital (UNLP) in Kosice have withdrawn their resignation notices to date, the hospital's spokeswoman Ladislava Sustova told TASR on Wednesday, adding that 343 doctors are still currently running down their notice periods, however. "Even if the doctors do not withdraw their resignation notices by the end of the year, UNLP Kosice will ensure that emergency medical care is provided to patients after December 31. The departments in which doctors are not on notice will provide health care without restrictions," she said. BRATISLAVA - Amnesty International Slovakia (AIS) is concerned about the Parliament-approved legislation related to measures to ensure the availability of health care, TASR was told by AIS head Rado Sloboda on Thursday. "The effect of the bill is to change the definition of an extraordinary situation that may result in doctors being forced to work. International human rights law imposes an obligation on the state to prohibit and prevent forced labour, including through the adoption of legislative measures and their enforcement," stated Sloboda. The organisation finds the use of a state of emergency to put pressure on doctors to be worrying. It points out that measures restricting personal liberty must be in accordance with international human rights law, with an emphasis on respect for the right to personal liberty and security. "The authorities must ensure that any such measure is proportionate, targeted and used in response to a pressing public or social need, with an emphasis on non-discrimination," pointed out Sloboda. AIS is also concerned that the declaration of an extraordinary situation and the risk of forced labour may have a direct negative impact on the right to health care provision. According to the organisation, the law also lacks a more precise definition of 'critical health-care shortage' which creates room for unclear interpretation and application of the law. BRATISLAVA - A march from the Slovak National National Uprising Square to the Freedom Square was held in Bratislava on Thursday in order to support Slovak culture. The protest ended with a concert for the future of culture. The Slovak Cultural Torch, with its protest flame, supports the demands of the Cultural Strike movement. It demands professional and competent management of the Culture Ministry, an immediate end to ideologically motivated censorship and financial stabilisation of the sector. The Open Culture platform launched the Slovak Cultural Torch event on November 17 and the symbolic torch was carried from Humenne in Presov region to Bratislava. The protest was also supported by Slovak National Theatre actors in Bratislava on Thursday. mf