Prague, May 9 (CTK) – The Czech government must give hospitals the money needed for a 10-percent pay rise of their staff, representatives of the hospitals and Health Minister Svatopluk Nemecek (Social Democrats, CSSD) agreed yesterday.
Nemecek said the hospitals would need further money for their development.
He repeatedly said the state should markedly increase the health insurance payments that it covers on behalf of children, pensioners and the unemployed, from the present 870 crowns to 1007 crowns a month.
As the state pays the insurance for nearly six million people, or a majority of the population, the healthcare sector would gain almost 10 billion crowns more thanks to the higher insurance.
The government coalition of the CSSD, the ANO movement and the Christian Democrats (KDU-CSL) plans to increase the salaries of doctors, nurses and other hospital personnel by 10 percent as of 2017.
Stanislav Fiala, from a group associating 120 hospitals, said the government should promise a 10-percent pay rise in each of the next three years if it wants to prevent doctors and nurses from leaving abroad.
Employees of all hospitals should see their salaries go up next year.
The Health Ministry will order the pay rise in state-run and university hospitals. In hospitals operated by regions, the pay rise would be guaranteed by an agreement signed by Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka (CSSD) and regional authorities. In private hospitals, an ordinance will set the sum each medical worker would receive.
Hospital representatives and Nemecek yesterday also discussed the plans to make the healthcare sector more stable by 2017, such as slimming down bloated bureaucracy and making postgraduate education of doctors and nurses more simple.
Before joining the cabinet, Nemecek was a director of a large university hospital for ten years.
The financial demands of hospitals have been criticised by Finance Minister Andrej Babis (ANO) who claims that a lot of money is wasted in the healthcare sector and that hospital directors should be better managers.
($1=23.534 crowns)
