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SLOVAKIA

Health care

The Slovak health care system is in a permanent process of transformation in the last 12 years.

One of the most recent step of the reform is a new rule, approved by the Slovak Parliament, that each patient has to pay at each visiting of the primary care doctor a sum of 20,-Sk - (0,5 Euro).

There does not exist a rational reason for this. It does not help the doctors financialy at all, and the patients are angry and irritated, as for the last 50 years they were used to have the whole healt care service free of charge.

Undergraduate education

In accordance with the EU Directive 93/16 all Slovak Medical schools started to put more stress on GP/FM teaching. There are four Medical schools in Slovakia, and at two of them there are yet no Departments of General practice and Family medicine, but teaching of General practice and Family medicine became a compulsory part of undergraduate educational at all of them. Medical students are obliged to spend 1 or 2 weeks at an accredited primary care teaching practice.

Postgraduate education

Vocational trainig for General Practice is 3 years. Future GP must spend two and half years on various hospital and polyclinic departments and there is a request for spending 6 months in „teaching practice“. Lack of teaching practices is the reason why the last mentioned condition is not always fulfilled in reality. The process of accreditation of teching practices is in progress.

Continuous Medical Education

The model of obligatory continuous medical education: „CREDIT POINT SYSTEM CME IN GENERAL PRACTICE“ is now accepted with real respect. GP's are obliged to prove their attendance of educational activities by collecting certain number of credit points (200 points per year). The evaluation is in the competence of the elected representatives of the Regional Medical Chamber and is provided every 5 years as „recertification“. Recertification will be one of the conditions for renovation of GP's contract with the Health insurance companies.

What I have done in my country as a Euract council member?

October 2002 - I was elected to be a vicepresident of the Slovak Society of GP/FM - the most representative institution of GP/FM in Slovakia, with 1 400 voluntary GP members (the total number of GP's in Slovakia is 2 150). In this Society I am also responsible for the international relationships and activities: I was nominated to represent the Slovak Society in the European Society, WONCA Europe, EURACT, EUROPREV and EURIPA . Slovakia is not yet represented in EQUIP, EGPRW. The process of our application to the UEMO is undergoing.

November 2002 - The New Definition of GP/FM has been published in my article in the wide- spread medical journal „Health Care News“.

January 2003 - I have had a Presentation with title „New European Definition of GP/FM“ at the Slovak Conference of GP/FM - with live discussion.

February 2003 - I was reelected as the regional president of the second most important institution of GP's, the Association of Private Physicians of Slovakia.

April 2003 - an other of mine articles was published in the „Health Care News“ medical journal, with title: „Core competencies of GP in Europe.“