Thousands of doctors' offices to shut in Czechia amid nationwide strike

Czech general practitioners (GPs) have announced they will stage a two-day nationwide protest on Tuesday, Oct. 29, and Wednesday, Oct. 30, against a lower-than-expected increase in government remuneration. Around 7,000 doctors’ offices will, therefore, close in two weeks, massively disrupting the country’s healthcare system. 

At the heart of the dispute is a 2.83-percent increase in doctor reimbursement rates, short of the 3.3 percent that had previously been expected. The Ministry of Health announced the pay change last week. The Association of General Practitioners (SPL) has sent a letter to Prime Minister Petar Fiala voicing its anger and explaining its decision to protest.

According to SPL chairman Petr Šonka, the current decree favors hospital care over primary care, neglecting the needs of GPs who cater to both adults and children, Czech Television reports him as saying.

"It [the change] does not take into account that we have 1 million people here without a GP, that in half of the territory of the Czech Republic there is poor availability of pediatricians and in one-third of the country there is poor availability of GPs for adults," Šonka said.

The Ministry of Health has held talks with the association, but the proposed changes have not been addressed, most doctors say. Ministry spokesperson Ondřej Jakob countered that the situation is not as dire as portrayed by the association, stating that the reimbursement decree is in its final stage and may undergo minor changes. 

"The reimbursement decree is now in the final stage, it is not yet effective and there may be minor changes," Jakob said.

The Association of Czech and Moravian Hospitals (AČMN) also disagrees with the decree's distribution of funds to the healthcare sector for 2025. If the decree remains unchanged, the association plans to challenge it in the Constitutional Court. The Ministry of Health, however, does not agree with the AČMN's arguments. The ministry must submit the decree by the end of October.

This morning, the Czech Medical Chamber (CLK) announced that it failed to reach an agreement with the Ministry of Health on the final version of the doctors' remuneration law

Health Minister Vlastimil Válek said he presented three potential options to doctors, but none were accepted. He explained that the unions' and CLK's proposals would add CZK 40 billion to salary costs. To cover this, the government would either have to cut funding from other areas, raise taxes, or increase health insurance contributions – options Válek said he could not support.