Czech doctors threaten to walk out over low pay

Czech health care is once again in the spotlight, after the country’s Medical Chamber called on hospital physicians to quit their jobs by the end of the year if they don’t get a substantial pay raise. The appeal is unlikely to leave patients in Czech hospitals without treatment, but will put more pressure on the potential government coalition which plans to introduce a major overhaul of the system.

Around 250 Czech doctors leave the country each year to work and live abroad – particularly in Germany and the UK. There the salaries are four to five times higher than those they can achieve at home, even after years of practice.

As a result, Czech hospitals are short on staff and physicians are chronically overworked.

Milan Kubek

To change this, the Czech Medical Chamber, which associates all physicians practising in the Czech Republic, joined on Tuesday an earlier appeal by the doctors’ trade unions: if hospital physicians do not get a raise by the end of the year, they should quit and go work elsewhere. Milan Kubek is the head of the Czech Medical Chamber.

“Despite insufficiently funded health care, Czech patients have at their disposal the same drugs as in Germany that we buy at the same prices; we use the same equipment that we buy at regular prices and there are also funds for investments. The root of the seemingly high efficiency of the Czech health care system lies in underrated labour – the low salaries of medical staff, including doctors.”

The average monthly doctor’s salary in the Czech Republic is around 45,000 crowns, or some 2,200 US dollars. The association says it should be raised by some 40 percent to stop doctors from leaving.

In the past politicians were not overly concerned about the brain-drain, expecting doctors from the newcomer EU countries to fill the gap, but according to Mr Kubek, this has not been the case.

Photo: CTK

“The health minister at the time, Mr Julínek, tried to get doctors from those countries to come and work here but no one did. The Bulgarians usually go to the UK and Germany and the Romanians to France. When physicians come here, they are either Slovak – there has been a traditional labour exchange – or from countries of the former Soviet Union. These doctors will treat Czech patients, and it remains to be seen whether Czech patients really want this.”

But Czech authorities have shown little sympathy for these complaints. The health ministry says the issue is far less severe than it is made out to be and the number of Czech doctors who go abroad has been dropping in recent years. The ministry’s spokesman, Vlastimil Sršeň also says doctors must understand what’s realistic and what is not.

“When the Czech economy was doing well and health insurance companies had enough money, the average salary increased in the last two years by seven percent annually. But we now have to realize that we are going through a crisis.

“This coming Monday, the health minister will ask the government to increase state payments per each insured person to make sure health care does not deteriorate – at least until the new government takes office and begins to reform the system.”

Vlastimil Sršeň

The three Czech political parties currently in talks on forming a centre-right coalition should by July unveil a detailed health care reform plan. But with their emphasis on spending cuts, they are unlikely to consider any major pay hikes – leaving Czech doctors with the choice they’ve had since joining the EU – work abroad for more, or stay home for less.