Prague, July 6 (CTK) – The Czech healthcare system is primarily plagued by increasing age of doctors and the departure of fresh graduates of medical schools abroad, the project Czechia in Data has said.
The average doctors’ age rose by almost four years over the past 15 years, from 44.5 to 48.4 years.
Every fifth student of a medical faculty leaves abroad after finishing the studies.
At the close of 2013, the Institute of Health Information and Statistics (UZIS) registered 40,619 doctors in the Czech Republic.
There were 271.1 inhabitants per one doctor, with the highest ratio being in Prague (143.7) and the lowest in Central Bohemia (419).
Most doctors are general practitioners (5329) and women account for 56 percent of the total.
The biggest proportion of veteran doctors was in the Karlovy Vary and Prague regions in 2013. In them, doctors aged 70 and more accounted for 7.4 and 6.6 percent of practicing doctors.
In most regions, doctors were on average 55-59 years of age.
A somewhat lower age of doctors is in the teaching hospitals.
In 2013, the expenditures of the public health insurance amounted to 290.94 billion crowns, while patients’ direct payment, payment for drugs and sponsorship gifts accounted for 15.3 percent of the total sum.
In hospitals, there were 2.2 million hospitalisations with the average time of 6.4 days in 2013.
The average length of hospitalisation fell by over one half as against 1992.
($1 = 24.322 crowns)
