Czech doctors resign in protest | The Health Culture

Many US doctors – especially primary care physicians – are unhappy with their working conditions and financial compensation. Things could be worse.

In Czechoslovakia, one fifth of hospital doctors are expected to resign by March 1 (4,000 doctors out of 20,014). Their grievances include low salaries and poor working conditions.

Jana Vedralova, an official of the trade union that organized the doctors’ protests, told The Lancet: (emphasis added)

We don’t want to destroy the health system. We want to treat patients. But this is a final, desperate attempt to change the situation for doctors in our country. For the last 20 years we have very politely listened to politicians saying that there will be reform and things will improve when there is enough money and that things will get better soon. But it has been 20 years of empty promises and we have had enough. Our patience has run out and we cannot wait any longer.

Should doctors earn more than fast-food employees?

The average monthly wage in Czechoslovakia is about $1200. Newly graduated doctors earn just over $866 a month. According to oncologist Peter Papp, whose salary has never broken the 20,000 koruna ($1,051) threshold, “My friends include a tinsmith, a cook. When we go out, they pay my bill. They say: ‘You are only a doctor.’ “ He earns 88 koruna an hour, or 2 koruna less than when he had a job labeling frozen chickens in his student days.

Doctors who are more senior do earn more – about $2,630 a month. But when you look at the number of hours doctors work, the hourly wage is low, especially compared to surrounding European nations. Vedralova comments: (emphasis added)

A doctor can do as much as 300 hours per month with all the overtime and double shifts they have to work. When that is calculated they end up being paid the same hourly rate as someone who works in a fast-food outlet. And these are people who are not serving up quick meals but are being asked to be responsible for patients’ lives.

Czech Health Minister Leos Heger blames the insurance industry, among many other things: “The [health] ministry … is seeking instruments to motivate health insurance companies to behave responsibly and to better redistribute the collected insurance money.” He says there is no money to raise salaries, and doctors will just have to wait.

Protesting doctors plan to look for employment in other countries or take up a new profession. Meanwhile, the Czech health care system prepares to cope.

This video news clip, from January 12, does a good job of summarizing the situation.

Resources:

Image: Times Live

Ed Holt, Czech doctors resign en masse, The Lancet, January 8, 2011 (requires free registration)

Grad McGregor, Czech doctors leaving en mass in protest, PressTV, January 12, 2011

Czech doctors quit in protest, Times Live, December 20, 2010

Katerina Zachovalova, Czech doctors threaten exodus over low pay, Monsters and Critics, January 12, 2011

Czech minister asks doctors to stay, money for pay next year, Ceske Noviny, January 12, 2011

Doctors’ notices not to threaten acute care in Prague, Prague Daily Monitor, January 12, 2011