As her ministry set about with far-reaching reforms, with the stated goal of improving insurance coverage as well as reducing overall health-care costs for patients, hospital employees unions voiced their anger over low salaries.
[4][5] The dispute was a continuation from the previous administration, who in late 2011 declared a state of emergency when industrial lockouts and wildcat strikes at public hospitals threatened to shut down the health sector.
[11] In the aftermath of the dispute, Zvolenska's ministry introduced a law, which made dodging work, or going on phony sick-leave punishable by up to three years in prison.
[16] The plans caused controversy when Achmea, a Dutch private insurance group, filed a lawsuit against the Slovak state, after legislation was passed prohibiting it from extracting profits.
The plan had already hit a raw nerve with the two private health insurers operating on the Slovak market, Zvolenska said the project was ready but it would not progress until the funding is secured.
"[19] In April 2013, Zvolenska's ministry introduced a law which reintroduced the system, in which patients were required to visit their primary physician first, in order to be referred to a specialist.
This was in order to avoid situations were patients visited several outpatient clinics for a single problem, thus duplicating examinations, as well as to improve the general quality of the health-care service.
[21] On 30 October 2014, the private news outlet Markíza reported that the Alexander Winter Hospital in Piešťany had sought in 2012 to purchase a CT-scanner produced by Siemens for €1 million, but the tender was stopped after the March 2012 parliamentary elections due to the change of the top management.
The new management, which included top Smer-SD officials, announced a new round of bidding and subsequently chose another device produced by Philips for €1.6 million.
[2] On 4 November, just days after the story broke, prime minister Fico publicly called for Zvolenska's resignation along with Deputy Speaker of Parliament Renáta Zmajkovičová, who was chairperson of the board of directors at the hospital.