Year 2024: What We Have Achieved and What Lies Ahead...
As the year is coming to an end, I am preparing for a speech at the Christmas event, where we, along with other partnering organizations and companies, will reflect on the year gone by and present our visions and plans for the future. What will I talk about? Primarily about the concluding Erasmus+ Med-Integro project, of which we have been a part for three years. When I say "closing," it doesn’t fully capture the essence, because although we successfully implemented the Erasmus+ project this year and are currently working on its formal conclusion, our work is far from over, and we will continue to develop what we have achieved. As i mentioned before, the Med-Integro project is built on four fundamental pillars: RELOCATION, EMPLOYMENT, COMMUNITY, and E-LEARNING. It is COMMUNITY that we will continue to focus on. But now, let’s get a bit more specific. Our task as a project partner was to develop a concept for preparing foreign doctors to successfully pass the required exams and subsequently integrate into society—a study and a proposal for measures for the government in collaboration with lawyers. The result of our work is a more than 120-page document titled "Legal Analysis and Proposals for Government Measures". This extensive material was prepared with the Labour Mobility Strategy of the Slovak Republic from 2020, with a vision extending to 2030. The legal analysis was reviewed by representatives of the Faculty of Law at Comenius University based on a memorandum from May 2024, and by colleagues from the Kinstellar law firm. At this point, I would like to thank them for their professional assistance.
The main goals of the analysis were:
identifying obstacles that complicate the adaptation process for foreign healthcare professionals in Slovakia (e.g., administrative barriers such as qualification recognition processes, diploma nostrification, requirements for professional exams, and language tests),
comparing legislative frameworks and adaptation procedures in various EU countries (Czech Republic, Germany, Poland, and Latvia). The analysis focused on key aspects of the legislative framework, such as the requirements for recognizing professional qualifications, administrative procedures, language requirements, and supportive measures for integration,
proposing measures to improve legislation and adaptation processes,
presenting specific recommendations for more effective integration of foreign healthcare professionals into the Slovak healthcare system.
The legal analysis was publicly presented at our Multiplier Event titled Human Resources and Migration in Healthcare, which took place on September 13 in Bratislava. The event was attended by representatives of the Ministry of Health of the Slovak Republic, healthcare providers, universities, and the professional public. From the final discussion, it emerged that the document was very well received, and we were promised that the relevant authorities would consider our proposals. However, as I often say, "let's keep our fingers crossed."
Of course, this was not the only thing we focused on over the past year. As always, we provided individual assistance to dozens of healthcare professionals who reached out to us with their problems and questions. We helped many of them, but a significant group remains, whom we still cannot assist — nurses from third countries. This is a distinct category of issues, starting and ending with the inability to have their qualifications recognized at the required level and as a result, even experienced nurses with many years of practice end up in Slovakia working only as practical nurses. This was one of the reasons for our summer discussions with representatives of the Slovak Chamber of Nurses and Midwives, where we set a shared goal to address this issue (similar to what we did with pediatricians in the past). So, we have plenty to do next year, but we are slowly working on solutions. We also turned our attention to pharmacists. While the demand for pharmacists is not as critical as for doctors or nurses, the success rate for passing the supplementary exam is by far the lowest. We met with the leadership of the Slovak Chamber of Pharmacists and the Faculty of Pharmacy at Comenius University to tackle this issue together. We also requested the faculty leadership to reduce the exam fee, which remains at €650 for pharmacists. Given the low success rate, this fee poses a challenge for many foreign candidates. With the completion of the Med-Integro project’s educational platform, we hope to contribute at least partially to improving the situation.
As part of our charitable activities, we actively participated in the pilot project of Slovakia's Digital Coalition titled Digital Health in Schools. Over 10 weeks, this project provided health screenings for 874 Ukrainian children without access to a pediatrician. For our partner, we arranged for two Ukrainian pediatricians and two nurses to support the initiative.
And now, some good news to conclude. Within the framework of the Recovery Plan, our association’s project "Permanent Conference of Slovak Healthcare Workers – Connecting Slovak Doctors, Healthcare Workers, Social Workers, and Students Working Abroad with Slovakia" has been approved. In the coming period, we will focus more on Slovak healthcare professionals living and working abroad. But more on that next time.
In conclusion, I want to thank everyone who contributed in any way to the various activities, making it possible for me to successfully present the results of the past year in a few days.