Czech President vetoes bill on non-profit hospitals

The office of Czech President Vaclav Klaus has revealed that the president has vetoed a bill that would have established a network of non-profit hospitals within the country's health care system. The bill, which would have transformed almost 150 hospitals currently managed by local authorities into public facilities financed from health insurance payments, was passed in April with support from Social Democrat and Communist MPs. It will be returned to the lower house for a new vote. Mr Klaus - a former head of the right-of-centre Civic Democratic Party - has indicated that he opposed the bill on the grounds that it was the wrong approach towards the country's troubled health sector.

The veto comes less than a month before general elections on June 2nd and 3rd: health care reform is considered a major issue in this year's election run-up.