Pediatric perceptions: pediatrics in Czechoslovakia. A visit to Prague in May 1968.

On May 22 and 23, 1968, I visited the Health Ministry of Prague, C.S.S.R. A clinic and day nursery were visited, and interviews with physicians and health workens were held. In the light of social and political trends in both the C.S.S.R. and the United States, this visit, informally reported, may be of interest. On entering the Ministry, which I did without appointment or introduction, I was met by a Miss Anna Vislocka, an attorney, whose job it was to see that I met the proper staff member from a standpoint of mutual interest and linguistic ability, Dr. Jiri Dunovsky. Dr. Dunovsky is a pediatrician who started his career in practice, developed special interest in abandoned children, became a district pediatrician, and was recently appointed to the Health Ministry. His special responsibilities at the Health Ministry are the social problems of pediatrics, adoption, abandonment, nurseries, and orphanages. He is currently developing a postgraduate course in social pediatrics for doctors in pediatric practice. Dr. Dunovsky and I spent the morning at his office. The following evening, having said he would meet us at our hotel, he took Mrs. Bates and myself out for an evening, which included a visit with several colleagues with whom we talked until the early morning hours. There is a great reservoir of friendship for the United States in Czechoslovakia. The following morning Dr. Amalie Gutman, pediatrician in charge of District 9, Prague, picked me up in her chauffeurdriven car, and we visited a district clinic and a nursery school.