After a dramatic increase in the salaries of Slovak doctors, which exceed the incomes of their colleagues from across the Morava River, a paradoxical situation arose in the landscape below the Tatras. The Ministry of Health is considering whether to accept the withdrawal of resignations, as it has been flooded with requests for employment from Czech specialists. “Experts with several tests and experience from developed European countries are contacting us,” Vladimír Lengvarský told us. “Finally, we can choose. And we said to ourselves honestly, when we already decided to invest hundreds of millions in this sector, since we didn’t hire only the best, with whom we don’t even have to deal with the language barrier?”

However, the view for our patients brings many problems. Czech doctors are resigning en masse and standing in long lines at our borders. They occupy hotels and hostels in several Slovak cities, demand personal meetings with hospital directors, and verbal or physical fights between them occur in the corridors of individual facilities.

An emotional exchange of views also took place during the talks between the heads of the health departments of the two republics. “We are not as rich as Slovakia, we cannot get doctors salaries like yours,” he stated after a meeting with Lengvarský’s angry minister Vlastimil Válek. “But that doesn’t mean you can’t abuse this status! After all, if it continues like this, we will be forced to declare a state of emergency.”

According to our information, the Czech Ministry of Defense defends itself at the borders, but this time they are not targeting illegal migrants, but their own health workers, whom they are uncompromisingly returning home. The effect of this measure is practically non-existent, because “refugees” penetrate to us through Poland, Austria or Hungary. “We suggested that we send Slovak medics to the neighbors, who do not pass the sieve, but Mr. Válek rather indiscriminately rejected such a solution,” he complained to the Lengvar media.

Indignation also prevailed in the ranks of the Medical Trade Union, which is again driving its members to the streets. “We consider such a procedure on the part of the state to be unprecedented dilettantism,” snorted LOZ chief Peter Visolajský. “Did we fight for months so that Czech doctors would improve? And what are we going to do now? That is why we are going on strike again. We want not only that the withdrawal of resignations be accepted without exception, but also that the national principle be applied in admission procedures. We have organized a petition drive and I believe that the public will stand by us. That people don’t fall for imported doctors. Maybe some are better, but we are at home! We are all in the same boat and we need to connect with each other!”