Prague, April 13 (CTK) – The Czech Health Ministry does not plan to cover the treatment by traditional Chinese medicine from public health insurance, Health Minister Svatopluk Nemecek told reporters yesterday, after a meeting with Roman Prymula, director of the Hradec Kralove Teaching Hospital, east Bohemia.
This hospital offers the Chinese medicine treatment for which some 20 patients pay there a day, that is about 7000 a year, Nemecek (senior government Social Democrats, CSSD) added.
The Czech Doctors’ Chamber (CLK) and the Czech Medical Association of J. E. Purkyne reject the application of Chinese medicine in the Czech Republic. They argue that it is not scientifically verified.
However, the centre in the Hradec Kralove hospital argues with its results, saying the Chinese medicine methods have relieved 85 percent of patients of pain.
The Chinese medicine outpatient ward with a Chinese specialist and a Czech doctor has been working in the Hradec Kralove hospital since October 2015. It offers acupuncture and herbal therapy, using only the herbs approved in the Czech Republic. An interpreter is present during check-ups to avoid misunderstanding.
Each patient is first examined by Western medicine methods, Prymula said.
A Chinese medicine clinic with some 30 employees, including seven Chinese doctors, is to be built within the hospital by April 2018.
“A document to enable the construction of a traditional Chinese medicine clinic in Hradec Kralove for 270 million crowns thanks to a sponsor’s gift by a Chinese partner will be submitted to the government,” Nemecek said.
The government must give a consent to the hospital’s entry to the fund whose founding document was signed during a recent visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping to Prague.
Nemecek appreciated that the hospital would also focus on research into traditional Chinese medicine. It is applied by prestigious centres, such the U.S. Mayo clinic and the Sorbonne in Paris, he added.
Nemecek supports the application of Chinese medicine, mainly for the treatment of chronic pain and psychosomatic disorders, but not in the case of cancer and cardiac diseases.
However, CLK President Milan Kubek is of the view that the work of Chinese doctors in the Czech Republic is unlawful.
Under law, non-CLK members can work only under the supervision of an authorised doctor. However, Czech doctors, for whom CLK membership is obligatory, cannot supervise them since they do not command the Chinese medicine methods, Kubek added.
Nemecek said the Chinese doctor works in the Hradec Kralove hospital with the Health Ministry’s consent that can be issued for up to one year.
The organisers want the Czech Republic to become the centre of Chinese medicine for Central and Eastern Europe in the future.
The clinic in Hradec Kralove would also become an educational and research centre and cooperate with a hospital in Shanghai.
($1=23.717 crowns)
