Bratislava, December 10, 2021 - The loss of doctors may endanger the availability of general ambulant care. Since 2014, the resident study of practitioners and paediatricians has been supposed to solve the problem. Reimbursing the costs of the study was meant to increase the attraction for young doctors.

"Our analysis a year ago confirmed that the results did not bring expected success. The Supreme Audit Office of the Slovak Republic, therefore, carried out a performance audit, which concluded that the program had failed and that this project did not sufficiently contribute to an increase in the number of first-line doctors or to a smoother transition of graduates into the field. However, on the positive side, the Ministry of Health has reflected on our comments and has already incorporated some of them into the ongoing program”, explained Ľubomír Andrassy, Vice-president of the Audit Office.

Today, the risks are, for example, in the availability of general ambulant health care outside regional or district places, with almost a third of graduates remaining to work in Bratislava and Košice. At the same time, the Ministry of Health was unable to prove the success of the project or the effectiveness of the use of public funds for 20 million euro. National auditors recommend to the Members of the Slovak parliament to ask the Minister of Health for a comprehensive reassessment of the resident program and modelling rules that will simplify the transition of graduates into practice.

 

The full text of the press release about this issue in Slovak language is available here. Use the Google icon in the top bar for automatic translation.