Doctors in Visegrad 4 to stage protest

Prague, Oct 29 (CTK) - Hospital doctors in the Visegrad Four (V4) countries will stage a symbolical protest on November 20 in support of their demand for salaries three-times the average pay and higher payments from health insurance companies, the Czech Doctors' Trade Union (LOK) said yesterday.

Its representatives handed to Health Minister Leos Heger (TOP 09) an open letter expressing their disagreement with his health care reforms.

The protest is to start in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia at 12:05 on November 20 and last for about half an hour. The white gown will be its symbolical motive.

The Czech LOK representatives said the event is to be the last warning to the V4 governments. The unionists did not rule out that doctors from the four countries could jointly hand in their notices.

"The first joint action of the V4 doctors will not frustrate the operation of hospitals. It will be a rather symbolical protest with which the doctors want to draw attention to that the four countries' health care systems are developing against the needs of patients and that it decreases the availability and quality of health care," LOK chairman Martin Engel said.

The doctors demand that the salaries of medical workers amount to 1.5 to three times the average pay in the respective country.

In the Czech Republic, doctors in state hospitals have 57,687 crowns gross per month, in other hospitals the pay amounts to 55,514 crowns.

The average monthly gross pay in the country was 24,436 crowns last year, which means the doctors' pay was about 2.5 times the average.

Salaries in Czech hospitals were to increase by 10 percent this year, but they grew by 6.25 percent in state hospitals while in regions doctors and nurses did not get more money.

Another problem are payments for treatments that hospitals receive from health insurance companies. The unions say they do not correspond to their real value.

"The Health Ministry is gradually giving up its role and shifts all practical powers to health insurance companies. This means in practice that the companies alone will be deciding which treatments will be paid from public insurance and how much they will give hospitals for them," LOK deputy chairman Milos Voleman said.

"Care paid from public insurance will be gradually more and more reduced and even basic care will become unavailable for certain groups of people," he said.

The doctors say the protest could exceed last year's action Thank You, We Are Leaving, within which a quarter of hospital doctors handed in their notices. Most of them later withdrew them when agreement was struck with the ministry.

($1=19.288 crowns)