After the Czech government doubled the amount of voluntary hours overtime in hospitals, over 5,000 Czech doctors threatened to do no work overtime in December, forcing the ministry of health to review the amendment.
The Czech government has decided to reverse its decision to double the number of overtime hours after 5,653 healthcare professionals refused to fill in their schedules for December, claiming that working conditions were no longer acceptable.
According to Health Minister Vlastimil Válek, a group of lawmakers will submit an amendment to the Labor Code to the government in two weeks’ time. The plan is to reverse a previous decision that doubled the overtime hours doctors could work in hospitals.
On October 1st, the Czech government decided to amend the Labor Code to increase voluntary overtime from 416 to 832 hours per year for doctors and up to 1,000 hours for paramedics.
But this U‑turn follows an announcement by the Young Doctors’ Section (ČLK) on Facebook in which 5,653 doctors refused to accept overtime in December. They account for more than 25% of all doctors providing services in hospitals.
“Choice in this context is simply an illusion. If young doctors don’t volunteer to work overtime, their employer can decide – and this happens all the time – not to grant them the legally mandatory internships,” argues Jan Přáda, obstetrician and chairman of the Young Doctors Section of the Czech Medical Chamber to Radio Prague International.
Some departments operate solely thanks to overtime
“Also, if you refuse to work overtime, then it means putting an extra burden on your colleagues, which no one wants to do,” Mr. Jan Přáda added. Even before the amendment, the workload was hard for doctors to bear.
Moreover, the ministry of health decided to introduce new contracts, obliging general practitioners to work a certain number of hours in emergency services or face penalties in the form of deductions from the money paid to the doctor by the patient’s insurance company.
Práv Petr Šonka, President of the Association of General Practitioners, told Novinky that “this is totally unacceptable for general practitioners.”
Health staff shortages are a crucial problem in the Czech Republic, and some hospital services already operate solely on overtime.
The Ministry would also like to authorize on-call duty for 24 hours straight.
The amendment has also resurrected other debates among doctors, notably on the Labor Code and pay. At present, overtime accounts for half their monthly salary.
Further negotiations are expected on October 20, when the Young Doctors’ Section will meet with Health Minister Vlastimil Válek and Labor Minister Marian Jurečka.
