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The partial strike announced by doctors working in hospitals, over 6,000 of whom refused to work additional overtime in December in protest at salary and working conditions for medical staff, began on Friday. However, it is not yet clear how much this will actually limit hospital services, due to the deal struck between the prime minister and the protesting doctors on Thursday. Some hospitals have said that because of the deal made with the prime minister, even planned minor operations will probably be able to take place, and any restrictions to services will probably only apply to the coming weekend and the first few days of next week.

Originally, hospitals were saying that due to the protests, they would only be able to provide emergency care, but after Thursday's agreement between doctors' unions and Prime Minister Petr Fiala, the vice president of the Czech Medical Chamber, Jan Přáda, called on doctors to abandon the protest. However, it will only officially be called off once the prime minister's offer of increased salaries for next year has been confirmed in writing, which should happen at the beginning of next week.

An agreement has been reached between Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala and the over 6,000 doctors who refused to sign overtime contracts for the coming month in protest at measures that increased the amount of overtime hours they were legally allowed to work. The doctors’ unions, who were originally demanding reduced overtime, instead accepted Mr. Fiala's offer of increased salaries for next year at the meeting he held with them on Thursday. The prime minister has promised an extra CZK 9.8 billion from public health insurance to go towards increasing doctors' salaries, with the precise conditions to be negotiated in the coming days.

Many hospitals were warning that they would only be able to provide emergency care from December 1 due to the anticipated staff shortages that would arise as a result of the overtime strike. The vice-president of the Czech Medical Chamber has said that the protest will be called off once the prime minister's offer has been confirmed in writing.

The Czech Republic is ageing, according to the results of a new demographic projection presented on Thursday at a press conference by the Czech Statistical Office. By 2050, the number of people over 65 could rise from 2.2 million to 3.1 million, with the share of the population increasing from one-fifth to almost one-third. The over-85s will also see a significant increase in numbers, while the number of children and younger people will decrease.

Migration from abroad should help to slow down the ageing of the population, but there will likely still be a small decrease in the size of the population, which, according to the projections, could shrink slightly from 10.83 million to 10.69 million.

Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský, along with several other people, left the room when his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov took the floor on Thursday at the 30th OSCE Ministerial Council, which is taking place in Skopje, North Macedonia on Thursday and Friday.

The OSCE summit has been the focus of several disputes regarding Lavrov, with Ukraine, Poland and the Baltic states boycotting the meeting on account of his presence, and Bulgaria not allowing the plane carrying him to fly over its territory.

The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) was founded in 1975 at the height of the Cold War to promote dialogue between East and West. It is currently the only European security platform that brings together European countries, including Russia and Ukraine, with the United States and Canada.