Slovakia: Health-care system already lacks around 12,000 nurses
Slovakia: Health-care system already lacks around 12,000 nurses
Slovakia’s health-care system now lacks around 12,000 nurses and midwives, with the state having problems finding staff not only for particular outpatient departments but for some medical facilities in general. The numbers of nurses are declining rather than growing.
The President of the Slovak Nurses and Midwives Chamber (SKSaPA) Iveta Lazorová said on July 22 that the chamber has decided to point to this problem again after University Hospital Bratislava (UNB) merged internal clinics at the Mickiewiczova Street hospital due to the lack of nurses “I think that this is happening in many facilities across Slovakia, but only a few of them will openly admit that it’s because of the lack of nurses,” Lazorová said as quoted by the TASR newswire, describing the whole situation as critical.
According to the data of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) from 2014, there were around 5.75 nurses per thousand people in Slovakia. In Norway, e.g., the figure stood at 16.89; in Germany it was 13.14; in Austria 8, and in the Czech Republic 7.93. Of all Visegrad Group countries (the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia), the situation is worse only in Poland (5.24 nurses).
There were 42,415 nurses and midwives registered in Slovakia at the end of May. SKSaPA Office director Milan Laurinc said that the system has seen 6,001 nurses and midwives leave over the past eight years, while only 2,018 new nurses have been recruited – mostly new graduates
source: http://spectator.sme.sk/c/20223270/health-care-system-already-lacks-around-12000-nurses.html
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