interview I try to find balance. I don’t reject, but sometimes it’s to the detriment of my free time. I’m glad that my work is attractive and that I can help, but it has to have limits. If you have time off, how do you use it? I like culture, music, literature. I ride a motorcycle and play golf and tennis. I sail and in the winter I ski. I have a seven-year-old son with whom I play soccer. To what degree do you identify yourself with the phrase that work is a person’s mission? It’s not a mission. That’s a flat cliché. It’s luck in life if one fits into a job that’s also their hobby. But the Pope or a Cardinal have a mission. I could be just as successful being a driver, a farmer or a company director. Is it important for you as the head of the clinic that people who work here would have their job as a hobby? Naturally. If you were to do everything on command, it shows in the work. Such people wouldn’t survive. People here have to be excited about their work. Unfortunately, the motivators are not financial, even though I would like to see that. It’s more about the happiness about healed patients, the joy of having a good background and a group of people who have correct relationships among them. What makes you currently happiest in leading the clinic? Of course, that’s working with patients, whether in the operating room or in my office. It’s also a joy to lecture to medical students and pass on experience. And the less joyous work? All administrative work.What outright unmotivates me is the constant scramble for money. Nothing is available all the time, constantly something missing and you don’t have enough. Everyone is treated here as a potential criminal by default – as if you wanted to cheat and steal. And yet nobody takes into an account, that in your position, you are primarily an economically thinking entity that is frugal. I can’t afford to save money on patients, still, the magic formula is cost effectiveness. I’m aware of how much what costs and so I do everything effectively. Do you think that this ‘lack’ is always roughly the same in time or is the situation changing? There are enough means. It’s not a question of a lack but a bad distribution and particularly in medications. There an enormous dissipation in terms of medications. Is there anything you can personally do about it? A clinical pharmacist comes along with me to ward rounds on regular basis. There would be an old lady, she’s eighty-years-old, doesn’t see, doesn’t hear and takes thirteen pills a day. Her local doctor is nice and prescribes them for her. The old lady doesn’t even take them nor does she
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know what they’re for. And that’s the case with the majority of old people. I try to implement effective pharmacology with everyone. Are you exceptional with this? In this, yes. I don’t know whether my colleagues don’t care or are afraid to take action so that the patient doesn’t complain. I would go back to the students. What is their level? I have two types of students. Pre-gradual at the faculty and post gradual, that is doctors preparing for their certification. The pre-gradual students sometimes have the tendency to avoid obligation and not learn properly. I have both Czech and English-speaking groups in parallel. The difference is unbelievable. The western students are active, they ask, they are timely and have interest in the field. With the exception of some ten percent of active students, our students mostly study out of obligation. I can’t complain, but the difference between them is still very notable. Are you interested in internet evaluations of doctors? I don’t read it and I’m very careful about it. I don’t allow competitiveness among us doctors that would lead to suppressing the care for patients. When we begin competing for who is more popular, we will be pandering. Like politicians. We can’t do that. Is the Czech medical environment rather conservative? Of course and it has to be. We accept new trends and methods, but we still honor basic values. The respect toward the patient, caring for health so that the patient is satisfied and quickly healed. That’s true for all times. When you mention new trends, do you have an example of a truly essential difference in work between your beginnings and today? I started in 1972 and at the time, artificial joints came into practice. These days they are an entirely commonplace product. There are twenty thousand of them used for hips every year. And do you prefer Czech products? Every doctor, whether here or abroad, should honor their ‘national tradition.’ I can’t say that Czech implants are the best, but they also aren’t bad. I use them in sixty percent of our operations, Czech implants, splints, files, tools. Some regional doctors who are preparing for their certification here are often surprised because it’s the first time they see a Czech joint. And yet it costs seventeen thousand. Others cost fifty thousand. By default I don’t say that what’s Czech is bad. Is there an interest on part of private entities in sponsoring medical clinics? In America, this is a normal procedure. Every department has its sponsors that have labels above the doors. Sponsoring is a sign of an approach and quality.
And how is it in the Czech Republic? Occasionally, someone asks whether they can contribute out of gratitude. But then there is a heart wrenching and somewhat provoked campaign around children’s oncology. But I think that one is very well saturated. Unfortunately, money sometimes goes there almost pointlessly. I would be happier if sponsoring was specific and transparent, for a purpose. What would you currently need at your clinic? There’s a lot. We get medications and medical material. What are missing are beds, chairs, lamps. The things that make the lives of patients more pleasant. We still have over fifty percent of our beds older than thirty years. Such archaic beds belong to a museum. Do you think your clinic is among the best in the Czech Republic? I’m convinced of that. I have to be. The thing is, we have a complete assortment of orthopedic treatment. From children’s orthopedics to geronto orthopedics. From tumor therapy to spinal diseases. There’s nothing that can’t be treated here, we don’t have to send a single patient to another workplace. Is it difficult to hold such standard? It is. People identify with it, live with it. Everyone knows they have to study, educate themselves and be at a certain level. Author: Jaroslav Kramer Photo: Martin Weiss Translation: Michaela Freeman ■ české znění naleznete na našich stránkách www.leadersmagazine.cz
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