Prague, May 10 (CTK) – The Czech health care strategy until 2017 includes a 10-percent pay rise in hospitals next year and by 30 percent in total in three years, Health Minister Svatopluk Nemecek told reporters after debating the plan with Doctors’ Trade Union chairman Martin Engel yesterday.
The strategy also focuses on a reform of doctors and nurses’ education and a reduction of the administrative burden in hospitals. The aim is to prevent the departures of doctors and nurses abroad and make those who have left return, Nemecek (senior government Social Democrats, CSSD) said
The Czech Doctors’ Chamber (CLK) also demands that an emergency plan for health care be drafted.
The emergency committee of hospitals, patients and trade unions called on the government to increase state payments to the health care system yesterday.
The government is to debate the expenditure frameworks of the state budget and a convergency programme on Wednesday. It will also talk about the sources for health care insurers that are to send money for wages to hospitals.
The state pays health insurance for nearly six million people, including children, students, pensioners and the unemployed. At present, it is 870 crowns a month per capita, but the payment should rise to 1007 crowns monthly next year, according Nemecek’s proposal.
Without a rise in state health insurance payments the government promise to raise health care personnel’s salaries by 10 percent as of January 1, 2017 cannot be fulfilled, Nemecek pointed out.
However, Finance Minister Andrej Babis (ANO) has been willing to add only two billion crowns from the state budget to higher state health insurance payments.
He claims that the collection of health care insurance for employees and businesspeople will rise by nine billion crowns with the rising salaries and lower unemployment. Consequently the health care sector will have additional 11 billion crowns. Moreover, it should also draw finances from reserves, Babis said referring to what he calls “black holes” in the health care sector.
Nemecek proposes to the government to raise state health insurance payments by 9.88 billion. Four billion crowns are needed for the pay rise in hospitals and the rest for the salaries of those who will potentially return there and for the development of care.
Engel criticised Babis for taking merely the state budget stability into consideration and ignoring the critical situation in the health care sector.
Babis questions the proposal for a considerable rise in state health insurance payments, a special tax on tobacco and alcohol and a higher taxation of businesses.
The health care workers’ trade unions plan a protest event to highlight the shortage of doctors and what they call untenable conditions in hospitals in September or October. For a whole month, they want to strictly observe the Czech as well as European directives on overtime work limits.
($1=23.717 crowns)
