THE REFORM OF SPECIALIST TRAINING FOR GENERAL PRACTICE IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC

SUMMARY Aims: The aim of this paper is to describe the reform of General Practitioners' (GP) training in the Czech Republic (CR) and compare it with the recommendations of European institutions of General Practitioners and European Union (EU) legislation. Methods: The structures of the new Czech GP training (2007) were compared with the recommendations of The European Union of General Practitioners (UEMO), European Academy of Teachers in General Practice and the requirements set by the EU legislation. The comparison with other countries was based on data from the UEMO questionnaire distributed to its members. Data from representatives of institutions responsible for specialist training in the CR and from statistical offices in the CR were also used. Results: The GP specialist training in the Czech Republic does not differ significantly when compared to the other UEMO countries, however, not all the recommendations of the European GP associations have been fulfilled. Conclusion: The reform of GP specialist training brought about positive changes but further developments are still needed. In our opinion, the next necessary step is the setting up of quality criteria for the assessment of GP specialist training and of the primary care as a whole.