Czech regions and central government start planning for unprecedented hospital crisis

Czech regions and the central government are preparing for the worst as the clock ticks down on hospital doctors’ threat to quit their posts en masse to win better pay and conditions. Some regions are already drawing up emergency plans to deal with the threatened mass exodus from hospitals. The government’s State Security Council is also meeting to map a national strategy.

Leoš Heger, photo: CTK

If talks between the government and doctors’ leaders over improved conditions to avert an unprecedented mass exodus from hospitals were a patient, it would now be on life support and in critical condition.

No new talks have been scheduled after Minister of Health Leoš Heger and the doctors fell out at the end of last week over the share out of a 2.0 billion crown cash injection and guarantees that any of the almost 4,000 doctors who have threatened to resign — which represents a fifth of all hospital doctors — can return to their posts. Discussions soured when other health staff, such as nursing sisters, claimed part of the extra cash with the government taking their side.

The minister says he is open to new talks but says he has no new cash and says he has already gone beyond budget limits with his most recent offer. He did however say he detected cracks in the solidity of the doctors’ campaign and signs that some who said are leaving will withdraw their resignations at the last minute. That is a version disputed by Miloš Voleman, a member of the board of the Czech Doctors Chamber.

Miloš Voleman

“That is the opinion of the minister. We have no information at the moment that some doctors are withdrawing their resignations. Those doctors who have said they will leave are sticking to this. Far from weakening, the opposite is happening with doctors who have not resigned giving notice that they will not perform overtime.”

With three weeks to go before doctors’ resignations take effect, the Plzeň and South Moravian regions met on Monday to try and map out where and what services they can offer during the impending emergency. In Plzeň, a 24-hour emergency hotline should tell patients where they can get treatment.

The government’s own State Security Council, which normally meets to discuss floods and other natural emergencies, convenes on Tuesday with regions to try to get to grips with the unprecedented crisis facing hospitals at a national level.

Miloš Voleman is doubtful whether a meaningful new initiative will come out of the council meeting and warns that it is difficult to predict the scope of the looming hospital crisis before it happens. But he cautions regions and the government to prepare for the worst.

“It is likely there will be a complete collapse in some regions, nothing will function. In other regions, there will probably just a few hospitals offering acute treatment. But no-one can really say what will happen. When it happens, we will see.”

But Mr. Voleman predicts a near total collapse of hospital care in at least six of the country’s 14 regions. These are north and south Moravia, Zlín, and the Pardubice, Hradec Králové and Vysočina regions.