Prague, Sept 15 (CTK) – Czech general practitioners reached agreement with the Health Ministry on a rise in healthcare prices and on other demands and have scrapped their plan of a day-long protest closure of surgeries, Petr Sonka, from the GPs’ association, and Tom Philipp, from the ministry, said yesterday.
Philipp is a deputy health minister in charge of drafting the ministerial decree that sets the prices of healthcare for 2017.
A few days ago, the GPs said they planned to close their surgeries on September 21 in protest against unfavourable conditions faced by outpatient doctors.
They demanded a 6-percent increase in the monthly payments GPs receive for each of their registered patients.
Sonka, deputy chairman of the GPs’ association, said such a rise has was not agreed upon yesterday, but neither he nor Philipp specified how the payments will be increased next year.
Sonka said their silence is a part of their “gentlemen’s deal.”
“We have reached agreement and a sum projected for 2017 has been set, along with its promised further increase in the following years,” Sonka said.
Philipp said they also agreed on extending GPs’ range of competences and removing some restrictions that limit the prescription of medicines by GPs.
“The health care prices will rise comparably with other branches of the health sector, details will be specified in the ministerial decree,” Philipp said.
Sonka called the negotiations’ result a compromise that is acceptable for the GPs’ association.
“There are no reasons for the protest action planned for September 21 any more,” Sonka said.
To support their demands, the general practitioners, backed by the Czech Doctors’ Chamber (CLK), argued that hospitals will see their revenues increased soon so that their staff’s wages can be raised as of next year, while no increase is planned for outpatient doctors’ surgeries.
The GPs’ demands came under the criticism from hospitals and health insurers. Hospitals said their personnel, overburdened with work, must in addition often provide primary health care which is a job of general practitioners.
Health Minister Svatopluk Nemecek (Social Democrats, CSSD), who did not attend the negotiations yesterday, previously emphasised that the ministry wants to preferentially tackle the problems faced by hospitals that suffer from a personnel shortage.
