Prague, Sept 10 (CTK) – The costs of Czech hospitals securing organs for transplants from dead donors will be covered, according to an amendment to the ministry decree that takes effect in January 2016, Health Minister Svatopluk Nemecek (Social Democrats, CSSD) told reporters Thursday.
The amendment will define a new treatment to be covered with 10,000 crowns per patient who is a recipient of an organ or organs from a dead donor.
The Health Ministry thereby wants to motivate health care facilities to cooperate in the transplant programme, Nemecek added.
Health care personnel in regional hospitals must be motivated to preserve the organs of dead patients in a good condition to enable their use for transplants.
Transplant Coordination Centre director Milos Adamec pointed out that the approach of health care facilities was not uniform.
“There are some 100 donor’s hospitals. About two-thirds of them have ever provided a donor. However, there are also hospitals that have never provided any,” Adamec said.
Nevertheless, the financial motivation is not the only aspect that plays a role in the hospitals’ accommodating approach. It depends, for instance, on the personnel’s education level, Adamec added.
The amendment is the first step and others will follow, he added.
There are seven transplant centres in the Czech Republic with some 10.5-million inhabitants.
They provide transplants of heart, lungs, liver, kidney, pancreas, small intestine and the islets of Langerhans. A total of 378 transplants were performed in them in the first half of this year, more than 200 of which were kidney transplants.
