Health Minister Vili Beros said on Friday a new healthcare bill would be put to interdepartmental discussion in the next few days and then to public consultation in a month's time or less.

Speaking to the press ahead of a cabinet session, Beros commented on public reactions to some health reform proposals, saying that physical examinations and norms for doctors working in public and private hospitals were parts of the reform and that it should be viewed as a whole.

He said physical examinations in public hospitals were currently not part of public healthcare. “Given our bad living habits, it’s the professionals who are warning that we must step up prevention. That’s how the idea came about.”

Beros said these examinations would not pose too big a burden and that the need for them would be defined for each age group and sex.

As for the idea of introducing norms to control doctors working both in private and public hospitals, he said it was not a ban on working in private hospitals.

“I never said that any physician from the public system should be prohibited from working in the private sector. But given the complaints about unavailable healthcare… I must and will react. Although there are regulations on public and private work, we must enhance them for the benefit of our patients, so that they wait less.”

Beros said hospitals would work in two shifts, the hospital system would be reorganised, the public healthcare system network changed and functional integration carried out. Most importantly, he added, quality of healthcare will be included in the new law.

“The reform has three levers – amending the Healthcare Act, refreshing the public healthcare system so that it meets the challenges of modern times, and thirdly, basic contracting, because until now we contracted certain procedures only so that they were done, without looking at the quality,” the minister said.