Prague, Feb 9 (CTK) – Czech Health Minister Adam Vojtech (for ANO) removed former health minister Svatopluk Nemecek (Social Democrats, CSSD) from the post of director of the Ostrava University Hospital, his office announced on Friday.
Nemecek said he first heard of his dismissal from the media on Friday. He said the Health Ministry has never showed any dissatisfaction with his work until now.
The Health Ministry passed the news directly to Nemecek this morning, its spokeswoman Gabriela Stepanyova said.
According to the ministry, Nemecek falsified the hospital’s financial result to improve it, handed lucrative medical fields to private entities, was in a conflict of interests and his failure as manager led to expert and personnel instability in the hospital.
Nemecek dismissed the accusations. He said the ANO minority government in resignation is simply settling its accounts and making politically motivated personnel changes.
When Nemecek was health minister in 2014-16, he repeatedly clashed with then finance minister, ANO leader Andrej Babis who is prime minister now.
“If the minister told me he received a political order to sack me from Babis, I would say nothing can be done about it, but I consider the permanent fabrication of false reasons very awkward and undignified for the minister,” Nemecek said.
Nemecek was director of the state-controlled hospital in the city of Ostrava, the centre of the Moravia-Silesia Region, from 2005 until now, except for the nearly three years when he was a cabinet member.
Iveta Zidkova, from the Ostrava University Hospital doctors’ union, said she expects the cooperation with Evzen Machytka, who was temporarily entrusted with the hospital management, to be good because Machytka knows the hospital well.
Andrea Vylicilova, head of hospital’s medical staff union, said the replacement of director is good news because it will bring changes in payments for overtime work and hiring new staff.
When public Czech Television (CT) asked Vojtech about the specific reasons for the dismissal, he said the Ostrava hospital did not pay overtime work to its staff and forced the doctors and nurses to take days off instead. Vojtech also said a private clinic operated on the hospital’s premises and the number of surgeries.
Babis said an audit showed that the Health Ministry wasted money when Nemecek was in charge of it. “He (Nemecek) wanted more and more money for his ministry but was unable to say for what they would be used, he had no list of expenditures, he promised higher pay to doctors and nurses and did not even fully meet his promise,” he said.
Babis said he filed a criminal complaint over Nemecek’s purchase of expensive technology for the Ostrava hospital in the past.
Christian Democrat (KDU-CSL) chairman Pavel Belobradek told CTK that Nemecek’s dismissal looked like a revenge Babis took on him. “Babis has never made it secret that he hated him,” Belobradek said.
TOP 09 lower house group’s head Miroslav Kalousek shared this view.
Pirates deputy chairman Jakub Michalek said the dismissal of Nemecek was a pragmatic step Babis took in order to force the Social Democrats to join his next government. “He is removing socialists from lucrative posts to increase support for the party’s participation in the government among the rank and file.
The CSSD will elect its new leader on February 18 and decide whether to launch negotiations with Babis about the forming of a government. After the autumn election that ANO clearly won, Babis formed a minority cabinet but it had to resign in January because it failed to win the parliament’s support.
Communist (KSCM) deputy head Jiri Dolejs said a minister in resignation should sack hospital directors only in very urgent cases.
Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD) leader Tomio Okamura considered Vojtech’s step correct. “Ministers in resignation should not take irreversible crucial steps, but sacking a director if needed is neither very crucial nor an irreversible decision,” Okamura said.
