SDS MP Jelka Godec has pointed out a few reasons for the interpellation such as equal responsibility for the inaction regarding corruptive practices in Slovenian healthcare, inefficient tackling of the issues related to (too) long patient waiting lists as well as poor operation and increasing indebtedness of public health centres.
The largest opposition party is also critical of the minister’s proposed amendments to healthcare legislation. Godec has emphasized that the legislation is partly missing, while the existing proposals have not been coordinated with all parties of the coalition. What is more, the Parliament’s Legislative and Legal Service has evaluated some solutions as being in conflict with the Slovenian as well as European legislation.
According to Godec, the interpellation had been written some time ago, particularly when irregularities at the Paediatric Clinic of the UMC Ljubljana came to light, but the matters progressed with the legislation being prepared by the minister and filed into parliamentary procedures: “The matters have come so far that it has become obvious the minister is not handling the healthcare system or, rather, the situation in healthcare,” argues Godec.
According to an official press release, the minister is looking forward to discussions in relation to the interpellation, as she intends to use the opportunity to explain what her team and she, in cooperation with the government, have achieved in the health department.
The main coalition party, SMC, expects the minister to present her accomplishments and reveal her plans at the interpellation hearing, as well as shed some light on the pressures and lobbying she’s experiencing. The two other coalition parties, DeSUS and SD, do not consider the interpellation as a surprise, considering the problems in the health system. They, too, are critical and warn against mounting problems in Slovenia’s healthcare system but will study the second interpellation against Kolar Celarc carefully and decide who to support. The MP leader of SD Matjaž Han agrees that everyone is responsible for the situation in healthcare but adds that it is clear who bears the greatest responsibility. The DeSUS MP and head of the parliamentary health committee Tomaž Gantar has also responded to the filed interpellation, stressing that DeSUS had already set some conditions to Kolar Celarc during her first interpellations and that these have still not been met.
NSi has already expressed support for the interpellation, while the Alliance of Social Liberal Democrats needs to read the interpellation before deciding. The Left has already declined support, as the party believes the interpellation was written by the lobbyists from health insurance companies. The FIDES trade union of doctors and dentists as well as the Praktikum trade union of general practitioners support the interpellation, while the representatives of other healthcare workers oppose it, as they feel that the minister also takes seriously their position rather than merely listening to the doctors.
A. Č., Sa. J. (MMC), Snežana Ilijaš (Radio Slovenija); translated by K. Z.
