Despite having one of the worst mortality rates in the EU from preventable and treatable causes, Slovakia’s spending on non-communicable disease prevention remains among the lowest in the EU.
In the EU context, health prevention has become a strong pillar within the European Health Union. But health is above all the responsibility of the Member States and the EU remains in a supporting role.
While the majority of EU countries have increased their prevention health spending, Slovakia struggles with a disproportionate focus on treatment rather than prevention.
Slovakia devotes less than 1% of its total health expenditure to health prevention, which is the lowest figure in the EU and well below the European average of around 3%.
Even though Slovakia lags behind European standards in many health spending statistics, Value for Money analysts explain that these data are not always accurate, because health spending also depends on age structure Population.
“Older citizens need more health care, but each country has a different age structure of the population. After taking into account the age structure of the population, Slovakia spends slightly more than the enlarged EU member countries in 2004,” analysts note.
Slovakia has very high spending on pharmaceuticals and medical devices, but little priority is given to prevention, which remains neglected and underfunded even though up to 11,000 annual deaths from preventable causes and a high number hospitalizations could be reduced by more investment in prevention.
The figures reflect the lack of health prevention
About half of all Slovak deaths can be associated with behavioral risk factors, including dietary risks, tobacco and alcohol consumption, and low levels of physical activity.
Cancer incidence and high cancer mortality are among the worst in the EU, while life expectancy is almost four years below the EU average.
In particular, the figures show 590 cancer diagnoses per 100,000 inhabitants (incidence), while the cancer mortality rate is the third worst in the EU, with 293 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants.
These numbers can be partly attributed to behavioral risk factors. At the same time, vaccination coverage remains a challenge.
Slovakia has one of the highest rates of medical consultations per citizen in the EU, but it still faces a very low attendance rate for preventive health examinations.
Concretely, in most EU countries, the average number of consultations per citizen varied between 3.5 and 7.8, but in Slovakia the average number is 11, which places it in the lead, while the attendance of preventive health examinations falls below 50% for adults. population.
“Slovakia has a higher avoidable mortality rate than countries where spending is equally high,” conclude Value for Money analysts.
Contacted by Euractiv, Daniella Kállayová, secretary for oncological disease screening at the Slovak Ministry of Health, said that “community health awareness for health promotion and disease prevention, especially for marginalized and disadvantaged groups” is the first priority of the operational programme. Slovakia.
“This means sustainable improvement in health conditions, focusing on social determinants of health, increasing health literacy and supporting the reduction of health inequalities. The health mediation program through health assistants will be implemented on the basis of verified procedures and data,” emphasized Dr. Kállayová.
Faced with the high number of preventable and treatable deaths, she discussed the second theme of the Program.
“(It) focuses on promoting a healthy lifestyle and improving disease prevention. The aim is to reduce preventable deaths by strengthening primary and secondary prevention, for example through early disease detection and screening programs. A healthy lifestyle will be supported by programs implemented by health clinics,” she emphasized.
Regarding the high incidence and mortality of cancer, Dr. Kállayová explained that in the field of secondary prevention, the goal is to rely on oncology programs and create a National Screening Center.
“To support this, GPs should receive improved training in cancer screening. In addition, the aim is also to reduce treatment and hospitalization costs, including by developing infrastructure for activities focused on lifestyle risk factors,” she said.
As for budgetary improvements in health prevention, Kállayová is not aware of any major investments in health prevention in this year’s budget.
Asked about the measures needed to reduce cancer mortality, Dr. Kállayová emphasized that “the figures can improve by clearly improving the implementation of organized screening programs in the Slovak Republic, in accordance with the recommendations of the Council.”
The EU’s supporting role in health transfers to European funding of the Operational Program or, as Kállayová pointed out, the attempt to catch up with EU preventive screening standards.
The direction of health prevention in Slovakia belongs to the new Minister of Health, Zuzana Dolinková, but the priorities of her ministry remain unknown.
However, for treatable and preventable mortality rates to improve, prevention health spending will need to increase.
(By Filip Áč – Editing by Vasiliki Angouridi/Zoran Radosavljevic | Euractiv.com)
