Prague, Sept 13 (CTK) – A special fund for investments in hospital buildings and medical equipment will have to be set up in future since there is not enough money in the Czech system of compulsory public health insurance for these investments, PM Bohuslav Sobotka and Health Minister Miloslav Ludvik said on Wednesday.
“The financial resources have not sufficed and will not suffice. Investments in buildings and devices are also covered from European funds, but there will not be the necessary money in the next period either,” Sobotka said journalists after meeting Ludvik (both Social Democrats, CSSD) and assessing the work of his ministry.
Several billion crowns a year were needed. A part of excise duties on alcohol and tobacco might go to this fund, Sobotka said.
He praised Ludvik and former health minister Svatopluk Nemecek (CSSD) for the increase in health insurance payments that the state pays on behalf of children, pensioners and other groups, for the pay rise for nurses and the cancelling on most cash fees that had been introduced in health care.
Sobotka said the aim of his outgoing government was to make the health care sector economically stable and more transparent, and lower the pressure for high cash payments from patients. He said be believes that this has been achieved.
He appreciated the passage of the anti-smoking law and the duty of health insurance companies to release their contracts.
Ludvik said higher salaries and simplified system of education should prevent the hospital staff from leaving their posts.
He said the only healthcare bill that failed to be passed during the past year when he was in office is the bill on nonprofit or university hospitals. “This law should prevent the risk of the privatisation of health care,” Ludvik said.
