DEVELOPMENT OF HEALTH AND PALLIATIVE CARE DURING THE PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS IN THE SLOVAK REPUBLIC (2020)

Abstract

It has been established that 25 parties took part in the parliamentary elections in the Slovak Republic (held in February 2020). The Parliament of the Slovak Republic entered the following parties: Obyčajní Ľudia a nezávislé osobnosti (OĽANO), NOVA, Kresťanská únia (KÚ), Zmena Zdola, Smer, Kotlebovci, Sme Rodina, SaS, Platform Za ludi, Progresivní Slovensko a SPOLU – občianska demokracia. The election documents (parties programs) addressed the most actual issues for the country. In this article, the attitude of political forces to the development of health and palliative care for the elderly and people with severe, incurable diseases is done by the method of content analysis of program documents of parties that participated in the parliamentary elections. A study of the party's election programs shows that the issues of assistance to the elderly and the development of palliative and hospice care are quite acute for the society in the Slovak Republic. Therefore, a significant part of the country's political forces, which took part in the elections, developed proposals for the improvement, development of the health care system and palliative care. The most common solutions proposed by the parties are the development of multidisciplinary cooperation (in particular, between health care and social services), raising the status of health workers, especially nurses, increasing the salaries of medical staff, opening new institutions specializing in support elderly people and those who provide services to people with serious, incurable diseases, the introduction of digital services, etc. In times of economic crisis, one of the most effective forms of service delivery are home-provided services. It is claimed that the experience of the political forces of the Slovak Republic in the context of the development of health and palliative care can be useful for Ukraine as well. Medical reform is being implemented in our country, and due to the fact that palliative care is included in the list of medical services guaranteed by the state, the number of health care facilities providing care to the seriously ill increased rapidly in 2020-2021. The study of political approaches to improving the systems of medical and social support to citizens contributes to the implementation of medical reform in our country. Given the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic, this is especially important.