A Statement Concerning the Founding Document of the University Hospital in Bratislava
Bratislava, 27 February 2019: The Academic Senate of the Faculty of Medicine at Comenius University in Bratislava issued a resolution on 26 February 2019 at an extraordinary meeting which was sent to Andrea Kalavská, who is the Minister of Health of the Slovak Republic, and to Martina Lubyová, the Minister of Education, Science, Research, and Sport of the Slovak Republic.
The meeting was held with the participation of the Comenius University rector, Professor Marek Števcek, who said he would continue to support and help the medical faculties’ efforts to maintain the quality of university health care and improve conditions for students’ education. The resolution is given below in full.
The Academic Senate of the Faculty of Medicine at Comenius University expresses its fundamental disagreement with the decision of the Ministry of Health of the Slovak Republic (No. SO2536-2019-OSMŠaZP), dated 28 January 2019, on the change of the University Hospital in Bratislava’s founding document with effect from 1 February 2019, which includes changes and supplements regarding head doctors (Article I, paragraphs 6, 7 and 8; Article II, paragraph 2; Article VI, paragraph 4; Article VII, paragraphs 1, 4, and 6).
This document, which applies to all university hospitals in the Slovak Republic, contains unacceptable principles in selection procedures for head doctors of faculty clinics and university hospitals, including insufficient requirements regarding their qualifications as well as a high number of subjective assessment criteria.
We perceive this to be a clear threat to the current state of the highest level of health care at university hospitals, scientific research activity, and the teaching of clinical subjects. The implementation of the founding document may lead to the destruction of education at medical faculties and to the disruption of the development of individual medical departments, which will ultimately have a negative impact on the provision of health care to present and future patients and citizens of the Slovak Republic.