Doctors not ready for electronic system of communication

The Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs wants doctors to communicate medical documentation –such as notice of paid sick leave – electronically rather than by post as they have in the past. An effort to get this introduced last year hit the rocks and its planned implementation as of the beginning of 2014 remains highly complicated. According to the Czech Doctors’ Chamber twenty percent of doctors, mainly in small towns and villages, do not use computers and 40 percent of physicians do not have a reliable Internet connection. The head of the chamber has warned that if this change is enforced the system of paid sick leave would collapse and tens of thousands of people would be affected. The electronic system is already up and running but apparently very few doctors use it.