According to the Prosperity Index of the Czech Republic, data project Česká spořitelna and European analytics portal in data, the Czech Republic has the fifth best healthcare availability in the European Union. Due to the financial situation, only 0.3% of the population cannot afford healthcare, citizens of only four EU countries are better off. However, the Czech population is unhealthy above average.

“The Czech health system provides citizens with relatively extensive preventive check-ups and checkups, which are fully covered by public health insurance, meaning that as a patient you pay nothing. This is not very common even in EU countries. However, it is likely it is not sufficiently used by Czech patients,” said the director of the Public Health Insurance Company, Zdeněk Kabátek.

Overall assessment of access to health care according to the Prosperity Index, apart from the financial aspect, it also includes the average distance to the doctor and the waiting time for a medical examination or procedure.

And as far as physical distancing of doctors is concerned, the situation is much worse in this country. Due to great distances, up to 5.1% of Czechs do not visit a doctor when needed, which is the 5th worst result in the EU.

In smaller villages, there are no doctors at all, and people have to travel disproportionate distances.

“The VZP has been monitoring the availability of care for a long time. Our data shows that the problem really concerns smaller cities or frontier areas, agglomerations with lower population densities or lower purchasing power, which may appear less attractive to clinicians,” Zdeněk Kabátek confirmed.

However, the biggest problem with availability across the Union is the long waiting period. In the Czech Republic, more than 14% of the population does not seek medical treatment because of it, which is still slightly above the average compared to other European countries.

Position at the top of the Czech rankings also ensures sufficient hospital beds. There are 658 hospital beds per 100,000 population, which is the sixth highest ratio.

As an illustration, in recent Sweden this ratio was one third. Czechia ranks fifth best in terms of infant mortality statistics, which stood at 2.3‰ in 2020 (that is, two deaths per thousand live births).

If the Czech Republic has an above-average EU health care system that is accessible to everyone, the Czech health’s unsatisfactory state is all the more surprising. In terms of real life expectancy in good health, Czechia is around the European average. Before more serious health complications set in, the average Czech would live 62 years in good health.

“The number of years spent in health is far more important to the quality of human life than the absolute length of life achieved. Unfortunately, in the Czech Republic, the last fifth of life is spent in constant discomfort – mental, physical, and often in combination. show surgeon and platform founder of Minister of Health Tomáš Šebek.

Perhaps surprisingly, obesity is a long-standing problem in the Czech Republic. BMI (body mass index) more than 30 kg/m23 it has over 19.3% Czechs in the Czech Republic, which is the 18th highest result in the EU.

We fall deep into 23rd when we also focus on the pre-obesity stage. More than 58% of the population in this country is overweight, and this, of course, is associated with a number of health complications such as metabolic, cardiac and vascular diseases, higher risk of tumors, psychological disorders or overload on the musculoskeletal system. .

“The increase in obesity in the Czech Republic mimics global trends, especially in those developed countries, where the surplus of resources is not commensurate with the investment in a healthy diet, compensation for sedentary work through exercise or sufficient sleep,” explains Tomáš Šebek, surgeon and founder of the Ministr Zdraví platform.

Unfortunately, the Czech Republic also ranks unattractively in terms of alcohol consumption and number of smokers.