The Human Rights Ombudsman warns that the state is violating children’s rights if the only available paediatrician is located far from a child’s home, or if an older child is unable to choose a new paediatrician when their current one stops practising. The Ombudsman is calling on the Ministry of Health and the government to amend the current arrangements as soon as possible.

The Ombudsman is receiving an increasing number of complaints from parents who, following the birth of their child, are unable to find a paediatrician willing to accept their newborn. These problems are most prevalent in central Slovenia but are also occurring elsewhere. Under the current arrangements, newborns and infants must be accepted by the paediatrician with the fewest registered patients in their region, regardless of distance from the child’s home.

In the Ombudsman’s view, this solution is administrative in nature and does not ensure genuine and effective access to healthcare. For example, a family in Trbovlje could be assigned a paediatrician in Idrija, which is approximately 120 kilometres away. It is unreasonable to expect parents to make such long journeys with a child, and not all families have a car or the financial means to pay for the travel involved.

The Ombudsman therefore considers this to be a violation of the right to healthcare under Article 51 of the Constitution, in conjunction with the special protection afforded to children under Articles 56 and 24 of the Constitution and the Convention on the Rights of the Child respectively. The best interests of the child must be the primary consideration in the organisation of healthcare.

If a healthcare service is provided to a child only in name, but is not reasonably accessible in practice, this does not constitute effective access to healthcare. A child’s right to a paediatrician should not depend on their home address.

Older children may also lose their chosen paediatrician if their doctor retires or changes job. Treatment at a health centre alone is not sufficient, as children also require preventive examinations and vaccinations. The Ombudsman is also aware of cases in which a child was unable to receive a required vaccination before starting kindergarten because no paediatrician was available.

Such a system can lead to unnecessary visits to emergency departments or to parents paying for treatment themselves. A country in which fewer children are being born cannot afford to fail to provide those born with accessible paediatric care.

The Constitution and the Convention on the Rights of the Child oblige the state to take special care of children, and international standards emphasise the importance of making healthcare services physically accessible and providing primary healthcare as close as possible to where the child and their family live.

The Ombudsman emphasises that a paediatrician may lawfully refuse to accept a new patient once they have reached their prescribed limit. Therefore, this is a systemic problem for which the state must provide a solution.

The Ombudsman supports the proposal made by patients’ rights representatives in the Ljubljana region that the obligation to accept newborns and infants should be linked to a local branch of the Health Insurance Institute of Slovenia (ZZZS) or, more appropriately, to the municipality in which the child resides, rather than to an entire regional unit. The same protection should also apply to children who are left without a paediatrician due to circumstances beyond their or their families' control.

The Ombudsman is calling on the Ministry of Health to prepare an appropriate amendment to the regulation, which the Government should adopt as soon as possible. The competent authorities must ensure that children throughout Slovenia have genuine and effective access to paediatric healthcare.