Speech of the Prime Minister of the CR Mirek Topolánek on the occasion of opening of a new wing of Hospital in Motol given on 7. 12. 2007

You certainly do not expect me to speak in detail on the reconstruction of the children's wing of this hospital. There are other people to do so. Nevertheless, let me mention a couple of more general comments.
The first one concerns the responsibility of the state for ensuring health care at the maximal possible level. I am not here today as the Prime Minister, I rather represent the government as an institution.
Like other great projects, also the reconstruction of the University Hospital Motol has been done in the course of several election periods. Regardless the composition of cabinets, the state must ensure funds for such beneficial investments.
The nature of good operation of a democratic administration conceives in continual ensuring principal functions of the state and needs of citizens. It is not essential which government begins an action and during the election period of which government an action is finished. Patients are not interested in it; they have a right to health care ensured regardless politics.
Thus I proceed to the second comment. The health care sphere has been one of the most critical spheres for a long time. The financial tension in the triangle patient-doctor-health insurance company is a source of permanent problems and conflicts.
Apart from this, the health care sphere suffers from frequent changes of concepts, exchanges of cabinets, and ministers even in the course of a single election period. Therefore it is very important what Minister Julínek is doing now – he specifies range, quality, and standard of health care provided by the state from resources of the public health insurance.
It is not possible to make a progress without such specification. It is work, which the following government will profit on, in spite of the fact that they will change such details like concrete level of supplementary payments. However, clear specification of guaranteed health care will enable to set fixed rules.
Specification of guaranteed care will enable the state to stabilize the system for a long time. It will enable the state to fund such projects like it is this one, and to develop the network of key hospitals, to ensure basic health care at the maximal possible level without wasting those 150 billion crowns from the health insurance.
Clear specification of the guaranteed care will give citizens an inkling of what they can get for their money spent for the health insurance. It will enable them to choose freely an extra care. It will also enable funding of the health care sphere from private resources under clearly set conditions. Further development of medicine is not possible without these funds.
Now I proceed to the third comment of mine. Dynamic development of the medicine science enables to extend the length of life and to improve quality of life. But it also poses a serious ethical problem. What care should be covered and what care should not be covered. Nobody will have such funds to be able to cover all health care procedures, which the modern medicine science offers.
We should be interested in minimizing this ethical problem, so that doctors would minimally face that fatal choice between the treatment and its refusal, between life and death.
That is why the continuity of the state in ensuring the basic care must be maintained regardless the colour of the government. That is why that cut must be done to separate the guaranteed care from above-standard care, to separate life-saving treatment from banal treatment, to separate expensive treatment covered by the solidary system from common fees which everyone can pay.
When each of us pays couple of crowns more for aspirin, he can help to save a human life or to improve the quality of life of a seriously ill patient. The more we strengthen solidarity of healthy people with sick people, the better we will be able to take care of seriously disabled people, seniors or children.
Children, who are main topic today, will be subject of the last, fourth comment of mine. Treatment of children is expensive, and it is also impossible to withstand the look of suffering children's eyes. In case the system does not operate, they are just children who become reasons for emotional extortion.
The reconstruction of this pavilion shows that we are able to ensure adequate conditions for treatment of children. We must continue in improving operation of the system, so that we have funds enough for solidary care for all those who need it, not only for children.
The more we will be able to solve purposively stability of the public health insurance, the less we will be exposed to attacks on our emotions. The more we save in case of banal treatment, the less public fund-raising campaigns will have to be organized to provide aid for suffering people.
In other words, the choice between life and death can be made by politician through the change of the philosophy of the system. Each of us can make it through his/her acceptation of slightly higher fees for common treatment in favour of those who really need a special treatment. Situation of doctors will be slightly better then.
I wish all of you to have as good conditions for your work as possible, so that you could do your work to the best of your knowledge. I wish you to experience as few situations, when the fatal choice is necessary to be made, as possible. I regard as a duty of the government to be of assistance to you with it.