Amnesty International has raised inadequate access to primary healthcare due to a shortage of GPs and gynaecologists as one of the burning issues in Slovenia in its latest annual report on the state of human rights worldwide.

The report notes that a shortage of family doctors left about 140,000 people without adequate access to primary healthcare last year, a figure that increased to 158,000 at the beginning of this year.

In addition, more than 230,000 women and girls aged over 13 were unable to access sexual and reproductive healthcare due to a shortage of gynaecologists. This number could double over the next five years as existing gynaecologists retire.

The report cites the National Institute of Public Health in observing in April last year that access to healthcare services had significantly weakened over the previous 10 years.

Amnesty International Slovenia notes that the National Assembly has passed a reform Health Services Act that largely separate public and private healthcare and curb the scope to channel public funds into private profits.

If implemented consistently, the law will stop rampant privatisation and in part even rebuild the public healthcare network, the Slovenian chapter of the international human rights organisation says.

However, it also notes that adequate financing of public healthcare and of private providers with concession still needs to be addressed, as does the issue of accessibility to primary care.

The report again raises the issue of the remaining erased - people descending from other parts of the former Yugoslavia who are still excluded from the official register of permanent residents and the rights stemming from the status 33 years after being constitutionally removed from the register.

In February, the government rejected a proposal drafted by NGOs with the support of the country's president to tackle their status, which meant the erased continue to be denied the rights to access health insurance, work and housing guaranteed by residency status.

The report moreover notes continued social exclusion and discrimination of Roma people, in particularly those living in Roma settlements in SE Slovenia where many families still live without access to drinking water, sanitation and electricity.

Transgender persons in Slovenia still do not have a right to gender identification. People seeking legal gender recognition in official identity documents are still required to obtain a certificate for a mental health disorder diagnosis from a health institution or a doctor.