Czech health care to receive 420 million crowns from EU funds via EEA and Norway

Prague, Sept 19 (CTK) – The Czech health care sector will receive 420 million crowns from the European Economic Area (EEA) and Norway Grants in the years to come, according to the data released at at opening conference of the EEA’s Health programme today.

The money will mainly go to the improvement of children’s mental health, a better prevention of diseases and strengthening of the patients’ role in health care.

In the past few years, the Czech Republic received almost 3.5 billion crowns from European funds to launch the psychiatry reform.

The first goal of the Health programme is stronger support for mental health and well-being of children, within the continuation of the psychiatric care reform that has so far focused mainly on adult patients.

The other goal is support for prevention, and early diagnosis of disease causes and the right administration of antibiotics.

The State Health Institute will launch a project of prevention of contagious and non-communicable diseases, including healthy lifestyle, in socially excluded localities. It also wants to halt the rise in antibiotics consumption.

The third big project concerns dementia, primarily Alzheimer’s disease. Special centres for dementia treatment will be established and the NGOs working with these patients will be able to seek support, too. Moreover, GPs should be trained to better recognise dementia symptoms.

Some finances will also be earmarked for the strengthening of patients’ role and the position of their organisations. The patients’ HUB will be created to help make their organisations professional.

In his speech at the conference, Health Minister Adam Vojtech (for ANO) praised the role of the Norway Grants in the funding of the health care development in the Czech Republic.

Public health has been the priority of the EEA and Norway Grants since the very beginning.

In the 15 years of their functioning, a number of projects focused on public health improvement have been supported from these funds in the Czech Republic, many of them in cooperation with Norwegian institutions, Norwegian Deputy Health Minister Anne Grethe Erlandsen said.

The first calls for grants within the Health programme will be put up this year.

Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway contribute to the lowering of economic and social differences in the EU and boosting of cooperation with 15 European countries through the EEA and Norway Grants. Their recipients are Central, East and South European countries.

The Czech Republic has been their recipient since 2004 when it joined the EU. It got some six billion crowns in the first and second programme periods. The Czech Republic is the fifth biggest recipient of these grants after Poland, Romania, Hungary and Bulgaria.

($1=23.424 crowns)

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