“In some cases, this can make things easier for us, but this is rare.” he stated. This mostly concerns České Velenice. This is a city located on the border with Austria and connected to Gmünd. České Velenice belongs to the outskirts of the South Bohemia region not only from a geographical point of view, but also in terms of services.

“The nearest hospitals are in Jindřichov Hradec or in České Budějovice, but traveling to these two health facilities from České Velenice and its surroundings takes time,” he stated. In both cases, the distance is more than 50 kilometers.

That's why we offer to use the hospital in Gmünd. The health center there was established as a cross-border Healthacross project activity for the future of the Interreg program. This is the first cross-border health center in the European Union. It started operations three years ago. The aim is to ensure the availability of quality health services near where you live.

Kafková stated that the distance to the nearest hospital is not always decisive. “Diagnosis is more important. If we see a patient suffering from myocardial infarction, he will also travel from České Velenice to České Budějovice, as the local hospital has a leading heart center that will offer appropriate treatment. It also depends on which hospital the specific workplace is located in.” he says.

South Bohemia Rescue Service treated 67,573 patients last year. The number decreased by almost 3,000 compared to 2022. The number of departures also decreased compared to last year, namely 83,940 departures compared to the previous year which amounted to 86,524 departures. “It is true that the most frequent course is indicative of various internal diseases, when the existing disease state worsens, usually in older patients,” said the spokesperson.