SaS: New Plan for Operating Emergency Medical Service Is Step Backward

Bratislava, 27 January (TASR) - The new plan proposed for running emergency medical services (EMS) that was presented by Health Minister Kamil Sasko (Voice-SD) earlier on Tuesday has been criticised by the opposition Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) party as a move to dismantle a system that has been working for years, TASR learnt from SaS representatives at a press conference on the same day. Rather than being a real reform, it's a chaotic attempt to cover up Health Ministry's failures and a botched tender for ambulance services, with the current government and health minister bearing full responsibility, said SaS. "Today we heard Sasko's vision for what the provision of emergency medical services should look like in the future. He pretends that the entire system is a problem, but the only real problem was that of a non-transparent and botched tender. And over the past 20 years, whenever something has gone wrong in this area, it's always been the same parties – Smer-SD and Voice-SD, always the same people," said SaS MP Tomas Szalay. "If Sasko claims today that the EMS system has been mismanaged over the long term, he's in fact talking about his own responsibility. He knew that the tender would be a problem, but he went ahead with it anyway," said Szalay, adding that Sasko is now acting as if he were a saviour, even though he was the one who caused the problem. Furthermore, SaS fundamentally disagrees with the plan to transfer EMS under the remit of hospitals. "Of course, hospitals will sing their praises, as they'll get more money. But that money won't be used for better ambulances, but for cross-financing other operations that are generating losses at hospitals. The losses won't disappear, they'll just be shifted, and the emergency medical service will pay the price," warned Szalay. SaS has found at least five serious risks in Sasko's proposal, such as staff shortages at accident and emergency departments that are nearing collapse. EMS is not a priority for hospitals, and that's how they'll treat it, stated SaS. "The coordination of care between individual catchment areas will disappear due to the desire to transport patients to 'one's own hospital', even if there are no specialist capacities there," stated SaS, adding that the entire system will be distorted by economic interests instead of focusing on the needs of patients. Rather than dismantling a system that has worked so far, it would have been enough to address transparency, commented SaS. According to a plan of changes to the emergency medical services (EMS) system presented by Sasko, ambulance services could fall under the remit of hospitals with accident and emergency departments. Hospitals would be able to choose how they operate ambulance services, with three options available, but the responsibility for both choosing the model and for actually operating the service would always lie with the hospital. Sasko also stated that comprehensive legislation would be prepared on the basis of a broad expert discussion and that the plan has already won support among experts and politicians. jrg/df