Rallies were held in nine Slovenian cities on 10 January in support of the preservation of public healthcare amidst a shortage of general practitioners and general underfunding and understaffing, but the country managed to avert even more severe disruption as doctors called off a strike that would have shut down most non-essential services for 24 hours.

The rallies were held because more than 130,000 people, over five percent of the country's population, do not have a named general practitioner. GPs act as gatekeepers for secondary care and their shortage has led to overcrowded emergency wards. The situation has been getting worse by the week as doctors keep quitting the public system.

The rallies were organised by Voice of the People, one of the main groups behind the anti-government protests of 2020-2022, whose figurehead Jaša Jenull said this was a protest "against the greedy healthcare and insurance lobbies which exploit the crisis to post millions in profit."

Whereas the organisers had previously said the protests were not targeted against the government, Jenull criticised measures that supposedly resolve the crisis but in fact exacerbate privatisation and decried "unnecessary foot-dragging with urgent systemic change." "Healthcare will be the make-or-break issue for this government," he said.

The rally had been endorsed by all coalition parties, a move critics said was unusual given that it is up to the government to resolve the mounting problems. In fact, many senior coalition and government officials were in attendance at the Ljubljana rally, including Prime Minister Robert Golob.

Golob did not address the crowd but in a brief statement for the press he said that he had one clear message: "We understand the plight of people, we've come here to listen to the various arguments, and we'll do our best to really use this year to get work done."

The government has made 2023 a key year for health reform and several pieces of systemic legislation are set to be adopted to address the most pressing problems. Commentators have said the government healthcare efforts will determine its political survival.

In a rare piece of good news for the government on the healthcare front, a looming strike by doctors was averted by a last-minute agreement with their main trade union Fides penned just hours before the strike was due to start. The details of the deal have not yet been disclosed but it probably involves substantial pay rises, in particular for junior doctors.

"The strike has been called off, the public health system is functioning normally," Fides vice-president Gregor Zemljič said after the union's strike committee endorsed the deal. Fides expects the preliminary agreement to be signed by the government later this week, whereupon it will be presented to the public.

The doctors' main strike demand was for all doctors and dentists to get a five-bracket pay rise equalling 20%. The government had offered a 20% rise for junior doctors and around 8% for senior doctors, most of whom are in the top pay bracket. The union has also demanded strict adherence to workload rules.