Minister: Hospitals must resolve excessive doctors’ overtime

Hospital directors should deal with the problem of doctors working excessively long hours, the Czech minister of health, Svatopluk Němeček, told the Czech News Agency. He said his ministry wished to help resolve the problem by increasing the number of medics at hospitals. Mr. Němeček’s comments came after the Czech Doctors’ Trade Union called on him to produce a plan to deal with the overtime issue by mid-June. The union says that if the legal limit of 416 hours of overtime a year was adhered to there would not be enough doctors to serve patients.