Brno, April 26 (CTK) – Czech hospitals cannot charge a special fee for the presence of a father or another close person at child birth, they can only demand the payment of their extra costs connected with it, the Czech Constitutional Court (US) ruled yesterday.
Women have the right to a close person, either their husband or partner, or another relative or a doula, present in the delivery room, under the law, the US said.
Hospitals cannot charge for the basic sanitary means for the father, such as a mask, shoe covers and disinfection, either, but only for special services, for instance, refreshment, the court decided.
It dealt with a particular dispute between a man and a maternity hospital in Chomutov, north Bohemia, where he had to pay 500 crowns for attending the birth of his child in 2011. He filed a legal complaint against the hospital’s operator.
A district court ordered the hospital to return him 100 crowns, which the hospital considered its proportionate profit. It calculated the rest, 400 crowns, as the costs of a one-off outfit and shoe covers for the man and an instruction before the delivery.
Now, the district court will have to deal with the case again to reassess the charged costs.
At present the Chomutov hospital charges only 70 crowns for the participation of another person in a child delivery.
Czech hospitals collect various sums for this service.
The Prague-Motol Teaching hospital charges 705 crowns, while another Prague maternity hospital, U Apolinare, wants 300 crowns, CTK has found out on the website on Czech health care facilities.
According to the US’s own analysis, no fees are charged for the presence of another person at child birth abroad.
Ombudsman Anna Sabatova focused on this issue in the past. She said the participation of a close person in a child birth should be free and that she disagreed with a fee for the presence of a doula, a specially trained woman who provides emotional and practical support for the expectant mother and her family, either.
Sabatova welcomed the US’s ruling yesterday.
($1=24.014 crowns)
