“The Act on Chambers is already a bit of a beard. I think it would be worth doing some kind of revision for the current environment,” said Vojtěch recently at a medical law conference.
According to him, he is actively discussing it, some professions have also approached him about it. “They are general nurses and midwives. The debate will take place, we will look for the pluses and minuses of the solution, I am not against it a priori,” he declared.
The emerging coalition government of ANO, SPD and Motorists wants to strengthen the competences of non-physicians, they wrote it into the draft program statement. If it succeeds, according to Vojtěch, it would make sense for a professional organization established by law to “supervise” the activities and lifelong education of general nurses.
According to him, it would make even more sense for midwives. Already today they are united in a group called the Czech Chamber of Midwives, but it is an association with voluntary membership, not a chamber in the true sense of the word. In addition, there are two other umbrella organizations of midwives.
“We have been saying for a long time that the chamber of midwives should be established, but it depends on how it will be set up,” she said News from the president of the Union of Midwives, Magdaléna Ezrová.
The Czech Medical Chamber, the Czech Stomatological Chamber and the Czech Pharmaceutical Chamber are mandatorily established by law. However, membership is mandatory for all of them, and it was precisely on this point that debates about the parameters of both chambers failed in the past.
Vojtěch’s second attempt
Midwives had already started their own chamber five years ago, when Vojtěch was head of the resort. But then covid broke out. However, the office under his leadership supported voluntary registration instead of mandatory membership.
According to Ezrová, that was one of the obstacles. The People’s Republic draft law at the time envisaged voluntary membership, which was incompatible with the fact that the chamber was responsible for all midwives in the country. “From a legal point of view, it was problematic at the time,” added Ezrová. But they had more reservations.
In the meantime, the definition of midwives’ work has undergone significant changes. The Constitutional Court confirmed last year that they can conduct home births. And from January 1, 2026, women will automatically be entitled to three visits by a midwife at home after giving birth, all of which will be paid for by health insurance companies.
Outgoing Minister of Health Vlastimil Válek (TOP 09) told Novinka this year that an initiative must come from the professions concerned. Either due to the reimbursement of some health services by an insurance company, or the establishment of a chamber. He took the same position in the case of the chamber for nurses.
There are 86,000 general nurses working in the Czech Republic, while the number of doctors who have a chamber is roughly half. Last year, there were 4,600 midwives.
