CZECH MEDICAL CHAMBER, ITS ROLE AND IMPORTANCE

Czech Medical Chamber

The Czech Medical Chamber (CMC) was established by Act No. 220/1991 Coll. of the Czech National Council, on the Czech Medical Chamber, the Czech Dental Chamber and the Czech Pharmacists’ Chamber as a professional independent self-governing body of physicians. All physicians who practice medical profession in therapeutic or preventive care in the territory of the Czech Republic must be members of the Czech Medical Chamber. The chamber guarantees professional standards of its members, defends them, and provides them various services. By law, however, it must also execute certain disciplinary actions with respect to its members.

As a professional self-governing body, the Czech Medical Chamber:

– makes sure that its members carry out their professional duties competently, in accordance with medical ethics, and in a manner described by the code of the Czech Medical Chamber;

– guarantees professional standards of its members and based on special regulations certifies that conditions for practicing medicine have been met;

– evaluates and defends the rights as well as professional, social, and economic interests of its members;

– protects the professional honour of its members.

Organisational Structure of the Czech Medical Chamber

Functions in the organs of the CMC are honorary and elected officials are remunerated only for the loss of time and actual expenses incurred. Elected representatives must all be practicing physicians.

The CMC is represented by a president. This function is currently held by MUDr. Milan Kubek. President can be in his or her absence represented, to the extent of actual authorisation, by a vice-president. The highest representative body of the CMC is a congress of delegates, which elects a president, who represents the CMC in public, a vice-president, who can stand in for the president when needed, and a board, which is the executive and managing organ of the CMC. Disciplinary powers with respect to all members of the CMC are executed by the Honorary Council of the Chamber, and the Inspection Committee of the CMC inspects its activities. Advisory organs of the CMC also include the Ethics Commission and the Scientific Council.

Nonetheless, the basic element in the CMC are district associations of physicians. They can merge and form joint bodies. A district association has the following organs:

– district assembly (the highest organ of a district association)

– district assembly board

– honorary council of a district assembly

– inspection committee of a district assembly.

The Importance of the Czech Medical Chamber

Professional self-governance in the form of a medical chamber with mandatory membership is a model commonly used in developed countries and it is currently seen as the optimal way of exercising self-governance of a profession as demanding as the medical one is. The importance of professional self-governance is especially apparent in its ability to effectively and professionally represent and defend the interests of physicians as a whole. In countries which have no mandatory membership in a medical chamber, chambers’ abilities to represent are highly limited. This leaves physicians, members of a specific and highly demanding profession, open and vulnerable to inexpert and often politically motivated interference with the practice and organisation of the medical profession. A medical chamber should be therefore viewed as way of guaranteeing the professional standards of the medical profession and as a body that defends physicians’ interests. The CMC at the moment fulfils both of these goals more than ever before.

Czech Dental Chamber

The Czech Dental Chamber (CDC) is an independent, self-governing, non-political, professional organisation which unites dentists. Further information is available here.

Membership in the CMC is mandatory for all dentists who practice dentistry in the Czech Republic. Membership application is available here.

The CDC sets conditions for running a private dental practice and certifies that conditions for practicing dentistry have been met.

Upon registration, new members pay a one-time fee of 100 CZK which goes to support a district chamber.

Fresh graduates (in the first 3 years of practicing dentistry) pay an annual fee of 600 CZK, which goes to support the CDC. On top of that, they also pay annual feels to a district chamber. This amount is determined by the relevant district chamber’s decision.

Further information about membership fees is available here.

Czech Medical Association of J. E. Purkyně

The Czech Medical Association of J. E. Purkyně is a voluntary and independent association of physical persons: physicians, pharmacists, and other persons working in healthcare and related areas.

The basic organisational units of the Czech Medical Association of J. E. Purkyně are specialised societies.

• A list of specialised societies is available here.
• A list of physicians’ associations is available here.

Membership in specialised societies and associations is voluntary, carries membership fees, and is often linked to receiving specialised journals.