Health Minister Sasko Presents Government's Steps to Support Spa Industry

Rajecke Teplice, 29 October (TASR) - An effective spa strategy could significantly contribute to an overall reduction of hospital costs and could also cut the consumption of medicines, stated Health Minister Kamil Sasko (Voice-SD) at a press briefing after the cabinet meeting on Wednesday. The minister provided a closer look at a government resolution, which, according to him, will restart the Slovak spa industry. A timetable for the gradual integration of spa care into the DRG [diagnosis-related group] system should be developed in the near future. "It's very clear that spa treatment is a cost-effective continuation of hospital care. The first step will be a pilot programme of cooperation between inpatient health-care facilities and spa-care facilities in the area of follow-up and long-term care," noted Sasko. According to him, this pilot programme is intended to test in practice data from the financial analysis so far. "With this pilot programme, we'll test the calculations in practice without generating additional needs for the use of public health-insurance funds. We'll create the conditions and environment for such collaborations to take place, and we'll only support them when it's been realistically demonstrated that they are effective," added the minister. am/df