Hospital Beds Per 1,000 Population (2020): 6.5
Doctors Consultations (In All Settings) (Number Per Capita) (2020): 7.3
Hospital Average Length of Stay (All Causes) (2020): 10.3 Days
Computed Tomography Scanners (Per Million Population) (2020): 16.26
Magnetic Imaging Resonance Units (Per Million Population) (2020): 11.03
Mammographs (Per Million Population) (2020): 10.56

Source: Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. OECD.Stat. Last accessed August 13, 2022.

“Primary care doctors do not have a gatekeeping role in Czechia. Patients may consult specialists directly and generally face few barriers (for example, no user fees are payable in outpatient settings), which may be one reason for a high number of doctor consultations – 8.2 per capita per year compared to an EU average of 6.7 in 2019. A primary care reform is in preparation to extend the competencies of primary care doctors and enable them to adopt a stronger gatekeeping role in the future (see Section 5.1).

“Czechia has a dense network of hospitals, resulting in one of the highest bed-to-population ratios in the EU (6.6 beds per 1,000 population compared to an EU average of 5.3 in 2019). Some of these beds were temporarily repurposed throughout 2020 and 2021 to meet the needs of COVID-19 patients (see Section 5.3). The hospital sector is diverse, with many specialised facilities spread across the country, including designated centres for highly specialised care (such as stroke and oncological centres) set up in a reform process between 2008 and 2011. As part of its 2021 Recovery and Resilience Plans, Czechia aims to invest in improving rehabilitation care.”

“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.

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Page last updated August 13, 2022 by Doug McVay, Editor.