Rath said money for this purpose can be found on health insurers' accounts where 32 billion crowns rest unused. Rath was reacting to the media information about the desperate situation in facilities of long-term medical care. He said the problem concerns all facilities that care for powerless patients. It is not enough to hire nurses in Vietnam, for example, as after they learn Czech, the Vietnamese nurses would find out that they can earn twice as many as vendors and they would leave the hospital, Rath said. "At present, only a fool can decide to work as a nurse in hospital," he said. A Czech Charles University may stop teaching medical students ...
Czech cabinet wants companies to pay for medical checks-press ... nurse caring for powerless patients is deprived of her private life.
In view of the lacking personnel, which forces nurses to work many hours overtime, the job destroys them physically and psychically, Rath said. Health Ministry spokesman Tomas Cikrt called Rath's words "bargain hunter's populism". Rath would like to distribute the insurers' alleged surplus money and throw the whole system into debts again. The [insurers'] money is absolutely necessary for the system to function smoothly," Cikrt pointed out. Rath called on Health Minister Tomas Julinek (Civic Democrats, ODS) to set the minimal number of medical staff for various types of care, whose observance by medical facilities could be checked. No such decree exists to specify the number of staff now, Rath said. According to Cirkt, the relevant decree will accompany the planned new law on medical services, if it is passed by parliament. Rath said that nurses' duty to acquire university education should be abolished as most nurses can do with a secondary school leaving certificate. In reaction to this, Cikrt remarked that the current system of education of nurses had been introduced by the former CSSD-led government. It is also necessary to carry out programmes against the syndrome of burning out, which distressed and overburdened staff are threatened with. According to Rath, the media have not only uncovered the neglecting of care for powerless patients but also refuted the myth that private facilities care for patients better than state-owned ones. If elected regional governor of Central Bohemia in autumn, Rath said he would make random inspections at the local hospitals, including at night. (USD1=14.614 crowns)
(Ceske Noviny)
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