Mental healthcare in the Slovak Republic: current situation and future challenges

The Slovak Republic is a landlocked country in central Europe with a population of over 5 million. The Czech Republic and Austria lie to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south. The largest city is the capital, Bratislava; the second largest city is Košice. Slovakia is a member of the European Union, the United Nations, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the World Trade Organization, among other international organisations. The majority of the inhabitants of Slovakia are ethnically Slovak (85.8%). Hungarians are the largest ethnic minority (9.5%). With a gross domestic product (GDP) of €63.3 billion in 2009, Slovakia is classified as a middle-income country. In that year total health expenditure represented 6.7% of GDP (Pažitný, 2008), 34% of which went on pharmaceuticals, the highest share among all OECD countries (World Health Organization, 2010).