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Nearly 2.4 million crowns. The amount was the amount the presidential office paid to the private company Senior Home Group for the (first) year of continuous home health care for the outgoing president, Miloš Zeman.

This follows information Castle provided to editor Seznam Zprávy under the Information Act.

The amount paid includes care work at the castle in Lány from November 24 2021 to the end of November this year. December maintenance will only be billed in January.

But total health care costs would be much higher, perhaps double. The head of state's care was partly financed by Zeman's health insurance company from the start. The non-negligible payment of the insurance company was also confirmed to the editor some time ago by the senior representative of the home group management, doctor Boris Šťastný.

The costs insurance companies incur for the president's care are not public, and neither are his insurance companies. Although the conditions of tenders put out by Castle throughout the year suggest that it was a VZP, this has not been officially confirmed. VZP declined to comment on this, citing the protection of its clients' privacy.

The contract with the aforementioned company Senior Home Group will end on March 8, 2023. That is, the day when Miloš Zeman will be replaced by the newly elected head of state after ten years in office.

What will happen after the first people of the republic move from Lán castle is still unclear. Seznam The report repeatedly asked castle spokesman Jiří Ovčáček about Miloš Zeman's future health care and payment methods.

A spokesperson for the healthcare group Penta Hospitals CZ, which is part of the Senior Home Group, said that they were ready to continue treating the current president, if President Miloš Zeman and his family were willing to do so.

“Technically there is no problem with that. We provide care to a number of clients. The most important thing is whether we can meet the client's needs and whether his condition is suitable for providing health care at home,” said spokesman Vladimír Podracký.

Last fall, Miloš Zeman spent several weeks at Prague's Central Military Hospital. The reason was never explained in detail by Castle. He was hospitalized the day after the House of Representatives elections in October, while there were also doubts about whether he was able to fulfill his constitutional duties.

“I called Zeman's daughter and asked her to convince her father that he needed to go to the hospital, that his life was really in danger,” he explained recently in a podcast interview. for Insiders situation before the transfer, former prime minister Andrej Babiš.

Doctors confirmed the need for a hospital stay due to complications related to Zeman's chronic illness. A member of the president's medical council, surgeon Pavel Pafko, later said that Miloš Zeman was suffering from liver disease. The patient herself had previously told about her anorexia problem.

At the end of last November, President Zeman was sent home to a health care facility at the palace in Lány. Nurses from the Senior Home Group take turns accompanying him 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, according to the instructions of the treating doctor.

Throughout the year, the patient's condition appeared to improve. The president himself has repeatedly praised his health. Even though he still uses a wheelchair, in the last few months he has started to practice walking again with the help of a bodyguard.

This increase is to some extent also caused by the feeding tube that the president used to receive artificial nutrition into his stomach for more than a year. Miloš Zeman was eager to end this investigation before Christmas, which finally came true in mid-December.

“That's why I smile, in a happy mood and satisfied with life. Do you know what it's like to have a stomach tube for a year? My friends told me the tube saved my life. “Maybe it's true, but wearing it is a bit difficult,” he said in an interview before Christmas with CNN Prima News.

After being removed, he was already planning how to start traveling by plane again. First, he wants to visit Slovakia, then Serbia, and before his mandate ends, he wants to visit Israel.

However, unofficial information from several sources close to the Palace states that the doctors themselves are worried that the eating problems experienced by the president last year will not recur. Thus, the overall situation did not deteriorate significantly again.

These fears were more or less confirmed in October by the chairman of Zeman's medical board and former rector of Charles University, Tomáš Zima.

“The President's health condition seems to be improving, it is stable, but everything will remain as before, certainly until Christmas,” said Zima. for MF DNES. According to him, there is no need to change what works. “Mr President is trying to eat himself, but there is still a possibility that after the probe is removed, his calorie intake can be reduced,” added Zima.

Health services to the president are also reflected in the awarding of state honors. During the celebrations on October 28 this year, Miloš Zeman praised the two doctors who helped him in recent months with a solution to his complications.

The Medal of Merit was received by the director of the Central Military Hospital, Miroslav Zavoral, who continued to be his attending physician (and therefore also prescribed home health care for him).

The President also paid the same tribute to doctor and former ODS MP Boris Šťastný, who until the end of July served as manager of the care service's Senior Home Group.

An interesting circumstance surrounding the award, which, however, remains unconfirmed, was picked up by Seznam Zprávy from sources close to Miloš Zeman – according to them, Prime Minister Petr Fiala had problems with the countersignature of Boris Šťastný's award proposal. , Boris Šťastný, who has left all management positions in the Penta Hospitals CZ group.

According to his own account, he views this state award from the President as an appreciation for the work of employees of all private health service groups, most of whom focus on caring for Alzheimer's disease patients.