To make things change, the Health Ministry could have adopted new legislation on health care organisations, but all it has done is produce some guidelines for change.

The recently adopted emergency legislation to get hospitals out of the red is a kind of a step towards hospitals being run in a more flexible manner, yet this is also only a rescue operation.

The fresh funds it has provided, also for the country's biggest hospital UKC Ljubljana, were urgently needed or else the hospitals would have collapsed under the weight of debt and due to a possible suspension of purchases.

Since the Miro Cerar government will not implement a thorough health reform which would bring a sustainable solution to financing and organisational problems, the future remains uncertain, and there is little room for big ambitions.

This year, hospital directors will be mostly busy trying to find out where they can save a euro or two. But what constantly causes a lot of damage to UKC Ljubljana is both the government's meddling with its affairs when there is no need to do so and its failure to act when it should, Dnevnik concludes its commentary It's Constantly Draughty.