Jiří Šindelář¹, Štěpán Kala², Pavel Lindovský³

^1,2Department of Management, Faculty of Economics and Management, Czech University of Life Sciences, Kamýcká 129, 165 21 Praha 6 – Suchdol

³Praktik.cz, Civil Union of Czech Primary Physicians, V Zápolí 1251/23, 141 00 Praha 4

Objective: The article deals with some aspects of competitiveness of primary physicians in the Czech Republic and attempts to identify the impact of chosen macroeconomic/sectoral trends on model primary physician office.

This primary health care system is going through turbulent changes in a context of ongoing reform of the public sector financing and due to the entry of well organized and financially strong groups, such as privately own health care chains. The individual primary physicians need to make an important decision in the environment fraught with uncertainties.

Methodology and data: The first part of the article is based on document analysis (selected authors and published studies).  In the second part we use data from primary questionnaire survey and carry out test of hypothesis in regard to competitiveness of primary care physicians in the current environment.

Results: Authors expect that results will help to clarify few hypotheses about the competitiveness of small primary health care practices, in the context of current reform and sectoral trends. Authors expect that results will help primary physicians in their decision making.