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Marta Kahancová delivered a speech at a conference about healthcare system reforms
Marta Kahancová delivered a speech at a conference about healthcare system reforms
Published on June 20, 2012
- Marta Kahancová informed participants about the results of an international research of health care system reforms and their impacts on a collective bargaining. She also commented on details of the GUSTO project, which includes details how to meet the challenges of economic uncertainty and sustainable development through social dialogue, and labour market and employment politics in EU countries. The project is 7th research framework program of the European Commission and it lasts from 2009 to 2012. It includes 13 partners (EU and Canada). Research was aimed on health care reform trends and their impact on the collective bargaining and conditions of employment in the health care sector. Countries involved are Slovak Republic, Hungary, United Kingdom, France, and Italy.
- Implementation of managerial practices, typical for private sector, into public sector was identified as the major trend in hospitals. That includes professional management, implementation of market competition and price setting for hospital services based on market competition, transformation of hospitals to 'corporations' (publicly held companies etc.) with a target of reducing a direct government participation in the hospital management. As a result of the transformation, gap in the working conditions between already transformed and still public hospitals increased. Migration of hospital staff from smaller hospitals to bigger hospitals with better working conditions and also migration abroad, where the lack of nurses and doctors persists, is more common as well. For other working conditions, the impact is negligible until 2012, when nurses are being shifted to other positions. Job security is aggravated as a result of reforms and working conditions get worse due to limited funding of hospitals.