According to the EU, infections related to the provision of health care services in hospitals (healthcare associated infections HAI) affect one in18 to 20 hospitalized patients. There are negative consequences for patients' health and health care system costs. In the Czech Republic, there are 100,000 HAI cases per year. The complications cost 10bn CZK. In Europe, HAI causes an increase in costs by 4.5bn EUR (additional 16 million days for treatment and WHO Prague Office Director Alena Šteflová adds that there are 4,544,100 HAI cases in the EU per year).

It is possible to reduce the risk of HAI by more than 50% if we abide by the rules set. If we ask ourselves a question what could we do to make our health care system function better, infection prevention is not the full answer. Equally important is the improvement of organization of care of chronically ill patients. The costs of the care amount to 75% of the total health care costs in the Czech Republic and data show that not all of the expenditures benefit the patients. The currently debated bill proposing the allocation of public money among health insurance companies based on the criterion of how (long, seriously) ill their clients are, could be the first step, says MUDr. Pavel Vepřek of the Obcan.cz initiative.

Articles and interviews with experts on the issue are available here (in Czech).