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Angry general practitioners are planning a protest. Seven thousand surgeries are threatened with closure for two days

“We are preparing a protest action for the end of October. We want a change in the reimbursement decree for next year, which does not mean additional extra funds. The current wording is strongly preferred by hospitals and there is a lack of funds for primary care, which even grow less than the average,” Šonka told Novinkám.

According to him, this has not happened since 2018. The effort was to make the field more attractive and attract young doctors to it. There is a critical shortage mainly among children’s general practitioners, at the same time additional demands are placed on them.

“If this does not happen, we will suspend the operation of our surgeries for two days – October 29 and 30,” he said.

The average increase in reimbursements for health care proposed by the Ministry of Health for next year is 3.3 percent. Primary care is expected to grow by 2.83 percent.

Practitioners believe that the ministry will adjust the payments to mutual satisfaction within two weeks. The resort must issue the decree for next year by the end of October.

“We assume that the vast majority of general practitioners will participate,” said Šonka. In the Czech Republic, there are around five thousand general practitioners for adults and about two thousand practitioners for children and adolescents.

The Ministry of Health has committed for the next year that the expenses and income of health insurance companies for care will be balanced, and the increase in reimbursements has also been adapted to this. However, hospitals with central treatment and follow-up care will be significantly supported, their payments will increase by more than 10 percent according to the proposal.

Payments to general practitioners increased by a similar amount this year, i.e. by 10 percent and to pediatric practitioners by 17.5 percent. These were priority areas with the aim of improving the availability of care.

Protest seven years ago

Due to the lack of money, general practitioners and some outpatient specialists protested in 2017 as well. According to Šonka, it was different then, they solved many problems, not only the underfunding of the field.

“At that time, the goal was to draw attention to the desperate situation that had arisen and about which nothing was being done. The goal was not to change the reimbursement decree, there was more to it,” added Šonka.

Practitioners and ambulatory specialists at that time distinguished themselves, for example, against low payments for patient registration, lack of competence or restrictions in prescribing drugs, but also against excessive bureaucracy associated with EET or against eRecept.

The protest ended in 2016, the doctors agreed on a solution with the then minister Svatopluk Němeček. A year later, with Minister Miloslav Ludvík (then ČSSD), not anymore. They demonstratively closed the doctor’s office for the day. At that time, the practitioners ensured the care of acute patients by posting information about where acute patients would be treated in the involved surgeries.