New survey suggests Czech healthcare resources are squandered

A new survey suggests that Czechs go to the doctor more frequently and use more unnecessary medicines than most other European nations. The research carried out by the Fakta agency found that Czechs pay an average of nearly 16 visits to their doctor per year, which is around twice the rate of neighbouring countries such as Austria and Germany. According to the analysis more than 20 billion Czech crowns or around 1 billion US dollars are annually squandered in the health service due to a waste of resources and corruption. The survey was commissioned by the government, which wants to use it as the basis for an all-party debate on future funding for the public healthcare system.