Today, Czech medical facilities lack about a thousand specialists.
When Czechoslovakia split into two states in 1993, there were unexpectedly 449 foreign doctors in the Czech Republic, i.e., Slovaks. However, last year, more than two and a half thousand foreign doctors were registered, and although Slovaks still lead, the geography has become much wider – from Sri Lanka to Syria.
In addition to specialists from Slovakia, the most numerous group of foreign doctors are doctors from Russia and Ukraine. At the same time, as noted by the President of the Medical Chamber Milan Kubek, the Czech Republic often becomes just a transit country for them on the way to the West. "We are just a transfer station because they need to pass an exam confirming their medical diploma in a linguistically similar EU country, after which they leave to find better-paid work in Germany or Great Britain, just as our Czech doctors do," explains Milan Kubek.
The Chairwoman of the Association of Hospitals of the Czech Republic, Jaroslava Kunova, notes that qualification exams are mainly difficult for doctors from non-Slavic countries – they find the Czech language, in which the tests are conducted, challenging. Specialists from Russia and Ukraine cope with this much more easily. However, language proficiency is not everything.
"We receive information that some doctors from Slavic countries also fail the diploma confirmation exams because they face problems confirming their medical knowledge. This is due to the fact that Czech medicine is at a high level – we use the latest generation equipment that these doctors have not worked with in their countries, so they are at a disadvantage when taking the exam," explains Jaroslava Kunova. However, these are rather isolated cases. Overall, the Czech medical community highly values the qualifications of their Russian and Ukrainian colleagues.
"I cannot say that these doctors are generally less qualified. As an example, I can cite a Russian married couple: the wife is a pediatrician and the husband is a geneticist. They were simply excellent specialists. This is confirmed by the fact that they later received a fellowship in the United States. Of course, low qualification is out of the question here. In the Pilsen Faculty Hospital, anesthesiologists, dentists, and other specialists from Russia work. Those who have passed the exams no longer experience problems at work. In our major centers and faculty clinics, we get foreigners who already have some work experience, for example, in small hospitals of the Czech Republic."
What requirements are imposed on doctors from other countries who want to find work in the Czech Republic in their core specialty? First of all, it is, of course, knowledge of the Czech language, which implies fluency in medical terminology. Exams are taken in four core subjects in accordance with Czech exam requirements. The doctor is also required to understand the latest medical equipment. Since the level of medicine in the Czech Republic is quite high, including compared to other European Union countries, exams for foreigners are not easy.
Although the migration of Russian, Ukrainian, and other doctors to the country can partially compensate for the outflow of local medical workers abroad, who leave in search of higher salaries, it is unlikely to become a panacea for the acute shortage of personnel – currently, Czech hospitals need about 1,000 additional specialists. It is precisely the emergence of numerous vacancies in Czech hospitals that has led to the fact that more and more often in the doctor's office you will hear a foreign accent, possibly Slavic.