Doctors’ and healthcare workers’ trade unions and the Czech Medical Chamber (CLK) have called on doctors and other medical staff to reject overtime work in hospitals from 30 October unless an agreement is reached on salary increases, their representatives told the media today.
They said the Health Ministry had promised the changes but failed to implement them. The law, which would link healthcare workers’ pay to average wages, will not be approved by next year, they said.
The Health Ministry said in response that it has been meeting the agreement from last December. It said the next talks with unions are scheduled for 26 September.
“Our plan is that we will give the government another chance, and on 31 October, if nothing happens, we will repeat the termination of overtime,” said Martin Engel, chairman of the Czech Doctors’ Union (LOK-SCL), who was a leading figure in the ‘Thank You, We’re Leaving’ medical protests at the turn of 2010-2011. Last year, overtime terminations were submitted by some 6,000 of 22,000 doctors in Czech hospitals.
According to LOK-CSL and CLK, the Health Ministry’s proposal does not fulfil all the guarantees made to doctors last December when they struck a deal with the prime minister to avert protests. They disagree with the inclusion of eight hours of overtime per week and the failure to align salaries in state-run and private hospitals.
Currently, doctors say overtime accounts for 40% of a doctor’s pay in a hospital. Doctors began protesting about what they describe as excessive overtime hours last autumn, refusing an increase to 832 hours.
“Overtime has been reduced in some hospitals following the doctors’ protest, but only a quarter of hospitals have been able to comply with the legal limit,” said Dalibor Vesely, chairman of the CLK Young Doctors’ Section.
“Apart from the unfulfilled promise to raise doctors’ salaries to a decent level, there is also the problem of the disproportion between what the state orders for healthcare and what health insurance companies are willing to pay,” said CLK President Milan Kubek.
According to him, the government decree on the reimbursement of medical services for 2025 does not propose reimbursements at the level of real prices.
Dagmar Zitnikova, chair of the Czech Health and Social Care Trade Union, said the difference between the salary and wages of doctors in the same positions in hospitals operated by different founders averages at CZK 4,000, and as much as CZK 10,000.
