Surprising Resignation of Health Minister in Slovenia

Gantar said in the resignation letter that “there are plenty of views of different ‘health experts’ who are preventing any effective change in the name of public health”.

The outgoing minister is convinced that it is in the interest of these unnamed “health experts” that nothing changes in the health system.

“Views within the ruling coalition about how to organise healthcare in a modern way comparable to developed countries are too different to allow such legislation to be adopted,” Gantar said.

He noted that he had already announced his resignation about six month ago in case he would not be able to carry out the necessary reform which would provide a successful, accessible and financially sustainable healthcare system.

He also criticised some stakeholders for going too far in promoting the separation of the public and private healthcare system; while saying he was an advocate of public health, he believes the fight against concessionaires (private doctors working for the public healthcare network) by the Social Democrats (SD), the majority of trade unions and civil society movements has gone beyond all reasonable limits.

Gantar also pointed to the shortage of funds in the health purse.

Over the last four years, austerity led to the manager of healthcare purse significantly lowering prices of medical services, as a result of which the healthcare system suffered a loss of EUR 300m. “This cannot go on.”

According to him, healthcare has lost EUR 20m with the VAT raise in July, and at least an additional EUR 5m will be gone with the real estate tax. The health purse will lose an additional EUR 34m because of the settlement between the state and public sector trade unions.

The minister admitted he had failed to convince the coalition partners not to continue cutting the number of employees in healthcare. He added that further curbing of medical staff was detrimental in the long run.

He also believes that the pay system for public servants lacks incentives as, for example, public health workers are paid the same regardless of the amount of work they do.

Gantar also warned of corruption in healthcare and noted that his ministry did not have personnel or funds to effectively fight corruption.

Gantar was appointed health minister in the Janez Janša government in late 2011 on the proposal of the coalition Pensioners’ Party (DeSUS), and remained at the post after the government change in March 2013.

Immediately after taking over, he crafted a set of measures which were expected to net EUR 100m for the health purse. The measures adopted as part of the 2011 omnibus fiscal consolidation act eventually brought only EUR 64m in savings.

In the Bratušek government, he pushed for an emergency bill that eventually brought an additional EUR 36m mainly on the account of higher health insurance contribution rates. The minister originally expected almost EUR 100m from the bill.

During Gantar’s tenure, the long-awaited network of public primary healthcare was established and the law merging the Public Health Institute and regional health care institutes into two national institutes was adopted.

The 53-year-old doctor of medicine was the director of the Izola general hospital between 2000 and 2004. In 2006 he was elected the mayor of Piran, but failed to get reelected in 2010.

First reactions from the coalition partners suggest that Gantar’s resignation came as a surprise. The heads of the Social Democrats (SD) and Citizens’ List (DL), Igor Lukšič and Gregor Virant, said they did not know about the resignation when they arrived at a coalition meeting this morning.

Gantar is the third minister to leave the Alenka Bratušek government. The first was Infrastructure and Spatial Planning Minister Igor Maher (DL), who resigned over an illegal building on the coast only days into his term.

Last week, Economic Development and Technology Minister Stanko Stepišnik stepped down in the wake of a scandal surrounding his ownership of a company which was vying for subsidies handed out by his ministry.

PM Bratušek must now inform Speaker Janko Veber of the resignation within seven days, whereupon parliament will have seven days to get acquainted with the resignation. She will then have ten days to nominate a new minister or propose one of the cabinet members to fill in temporarily

source: http://www.sloveniatimes.com/surprising-resignation-of-health-minister