Paramedics Backed by ZMOS Oppose Change to Ambulance Services System

Partizanske, 4 February (TASR) - Paramedics oppose the Health Ministry's plan to change the system for providing emergency medical services (EMS) and are ready to hand in their resignations if it enters into force, with the Slovak Towns and Villages Association (ZMOS) supporting their stance, representatives of paramedics and ZMOS told a briefing in Partizanske (Trencin region) on Wednesday, urging Health Minister Kamil Sasko (Voice-SD) to suspend the process and hold talks with them. ZMOS chair Jozef Bozik said that paramedics organisations should have a decisive voice in preparing the reform. He added that, if managed by hospitals, poor hospital finances could be covered from the funding for emergency medical services. The Slovak Society of Disaster and Emergency Medicine (SSUMaMK) along with doctors and paramedics and ZMOS will seek to ensure that the new model, if adopted, will improve rather than worsen the situation. Bozik also announced that ZMOS will request a meeting with Sasko. Zuzana Pukancova from the Bratislava EMS trade union said that it wants Sasko to withdraw the proposal in its submitted wording, adding that the existing EMS system is capable of functioning because people are willing to work beyond their stated duties, working an enormous amount of overtime. "If it's disrupted further, it may well happen that it will collapse completely," she stressed. SSUMaMK vice-president Ivan Majling highlighted clear consensus across the entire paramedic community, with support also coming from other health-care workers and components of the integrated rescue system. "We're asking the minister to suspend this process and return to the beginning, and to make use of what he's managed to achieve, that is, unity across the entire paramedic community, so that we can sit down, united, at a single table and come up with the best solution to all the problems that we've failed to resolve in emergency services over the years," added Majling. The Health Ministry's communications department responded by saying that the ministry has presented the basic plan for the future functioning of the EMS in Slovakia, thereby launching an expert discussion with all affected stakeholders. According to the ministry, paramedics are being actively involved. "The ministry's representatives continue to hold discussions; most recently, they met the paramedics trade union on Tuesday [3 February]. As the talks are still ongoing, it's premature at this stage to speak about specific details," added the ministry. Under the new system, responsibility for ambulance services could fall under hospitals with accident and emergency departments, which would be able to choose how to operate ambulance services based on the three options available. The minister presented the plan at the end of January, declaring that the preparation of comprehensive legislation would be preceded by a broad expert discussion. jrg/df