On the basis of contracts with the City Council, the Faculty Hospital Bulovka administers property and land of the City, said Petr Mach Deputy Director for organisation and management of FH Bulovka. There are set conditions for our property administration. For example, supposing we decided to rent a part out, the city council has to agree. Regarding the rent fee, it is more or less a symbolic amount.

In your opinion, is it at all a good thing for the city to have its own hospital?

Yes it is a good thing. I’m of the opinion that the City certainly misses such a metropolitan hospital. After all, Bulovka has already belonged to the City in the past – it was before the 2nd World War. “

Supposing such a change will happen, would it somehow influence doctors or patients?

“In no case would it affect doctors or patients and the professional structure of the hospital. Also every such change would have to go hand in hand with the approval of the Ministry of Health as the hospital is also a place of highly specialised departments: isolation ward, Radiation Oncology Institute etc. Of course, we would have to sort out what would happen to all of them in the case of such a transfer. But the patients’ professional care mustn’t be affected. “

Is the City already helping the hospital out financially?

 “We have to realize that the City also invests into its own property. If there is any problem we negotiate with the city council about a possible contribution. It is important that the city helps us out e.g. with financing of repair works. “

The City changed one of the buildings into a sobering-up centre. There were talks about possible difficulties and problems. How is it in reality?

“There aren’t any problems even though it may look strange that the centre is in a hospital, which provides highly specialised care and is also instrumental to further training of doctors.“

How do you personally see the possibility of hospitals’ transformation into joint-stock companies?

“I personally would welcome such a change but I have to stress that this is not an official standpoint of the Bulovka Hospital but an opinion of an employee who is in charge of wages. It would for example, change the system of medical staff’s remuneration, resulting in the possibility to reward specialist as they deserve it. The State hospitals are allowance organisations but in fact we could call them rather pseudo- allowance organisations because they are not fully linked with the state budget. One example is the situation when the government issued regulation, according to which changes in wages were made. Classical allowance organisations were given money to cover the increase but not hospitals as they are paid from the health insurance system where the situation is different.

Is it at all realistic for Bulovka to become the Metropolitan Hospital?

There is no answer to such a question yet. The possible transfer depends on the feasibility study for which our hospital already provided data. We also carried out an audit. Only after the board and council discuss the study, we can say for sure if it is or isn’t possible. “

City Council point of view

The feasibility study of the Faculty hospital’s transfer was carried be the council already in the last year. It is now finished. We asked Councilman Milana Pešák, who is in charge of health care, what is the progress in the discussion of the study is.

At the moment we are in the stage of the board debate on the respective document. That means that individual trade unions and councilmen are expressing their opinions. I expect everything to be ready by the end of summer holiday, including the board debate. I’m of the opinion that Prague would certainly benefit from the metropolitan hospital. If it comes to that, we would certainly want to preserve all well functioning specialised departments, such as oncology, orthopaedics etc. However, we have to realize that it won’t be for free. Bulovka also has some specialised departments with nation-wide sphere of activity. Regarding these departments, we would try to negotiate ways of co-financing with the state. After all, it wouldn’t be right if the city was financing such departments totally by itself,” said Milan Pešák.