Hospital Beds Per 1,000 Population (2018): 6.62
Nurse-To-Hospital-Bed Ratio (FTE) (2018): 0.75
Doctors Consultations (In All Settings) (Number Per Capita) (2017): 8
Hospital Average Length of Stay (All Causes) (2018): 9.4 Days
Computed Tomography Scanners (Per Million Population) (2018): 16.09
Magnetic Imaging Resonance Units (Per Million Population) (2018): 10.35
Mammographs (Per Million Population) (2018): 11.19

Source: Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. OECD.Stat. Last accessed Oct. 7, 2020.

“In 2012 there were 188 hospitals in the Czech Republic, of which 156 were acute care hospitals with 54,223 beds and 32 long-term care hospitals with 2584 beds. From the 1990s until 2013 there was an overall trend of decreasing acute care hospitals and beds and slightly increasing long-term care beds (see Table 4.1). In addition, in 2012, 158 specialized therapeutic institutes had a total of 21,470 beds (UZIS, 2013c). Specialized therapeutic institutes do not have the status of a hospital and provide specialized follow-up care, especially for long-term or chronically ill patients. Having decreased remarkably prior to 2006, their number has stabilized since then.

“Not all Czech health-care facilities have been able to keep pace with technological advances. In particular, many psychiatric institutions, long-term care and nursing facilities for the elderly are outdated and in need of modernization. This applies to buildings as well as equipment.

“Renovations of hospital infrastructure are, in theory, financed by the health insurance funds through reimbursement of hospital services. On the provider side, however, revenues from reimbursement are usually not thought to be sufficient for building up reserves for capital investments. Responsibility for decisions on the exact use of the payments received and capital investments lies with the individual hospital management teams. Investment decisions have to be adequate for hospitals to fulfil at least the minimal technical requirements set by an amendment to the Health Services Act. In state-owned or region-owned hospitals, investments are in practice often complemented by resources from the state or regional budgets, and thus by general taxation. Expenditure on capital investments by the Ministry of Health in 2013 amounted to CZK 866 million (€31.5 million), which is a decrease by 47% compared to 2012 (CZK 1.6 billion or €59.9 million). Capital expenditure from the state budget covers, for example, the purchase of hospital shares and investments in state-run hospitals as well as capital transfers to lower government levels (regions, municipalities) (Ministry of Finance, 2014b).

“Additionally, EU Structural Fund payments contributed substantially to capital investments in health care between 2007 and 2013. Some of these investments were made through the Integrated Operational Programme (IOP), which was approved by the European Commission on 20 December 2007. The IOP focuses on modernizing the public sector and on increasing the quality of public services. The European Commission finances up to 85% of total IOP expenses. The IOP invested more than CZK 12 billion (€480 million) in the Czech health-care sector, including CZK 2 billion (€80 million) on Specialized Care Centres (such as cardiovascular centres, oncological centres, traumatology centres, and so on) and their equipment. Other programmes which serve as sources of investment financing include European Economic Area (EEA) Grants and the Norway Grants. These funds are invested in areas such as palliative care, HIV management and psychiatric care.”

Source: Alexa J, Rečka L, Votápková J, van Ginneken E, Spranger A, Wittenbecher F. Czech Republic: Health system review. Health Systems in Transition, 2015; 17(1):1–165.

Health Systems Facts is a project of the Real Reporting Foundation. We provide reliable statistics and other data from authoritative sources regarding health systems in the US and several other nations.

Page last updated April 3, 2021 by Doug McVay, Editor.