Opařany (Tábor region) – According to experts, the number of children with a psychiatric diagnosis is still increasing, and there are few doctors specializing in this issue in the Czech Republic. There are currently 13 psychiatrists working at the Children’s Psychiatric Hospital (DPN) in Opařany in Tábor, which is one of the few specialist workplaces in the country. At the conference for the 100th anniversary of the existence of the children’s psychiatric hospital in Opařany, its director Michal Goetz told ČTK today.
“It is probably symbolic that the 100th anniversary of child care at the Oparan Hospital dates back to a time when child and adolescent psychiatry is facing the greatest burden in its history. The number of children and adolescents in danger of life is increasing, the psychopathological pictures of our patients are very complicated and a lot of patience is needed in their treatment. At the same time, there are few of us, the number of experienced ones is increasing slowly,” said Goetz.
According to him, not all psychiatrists at DPN work full-time. Moreover, most of them are on long-term internships. From this point of view, the situation in the hospital is still more favorable than at the beginning of 2022. At that time, one doctor worked in DPN, and due to a lack of professional staff, the hospital was in danger of disappearing.
“Nevertheless, we see young colleagues enthusiastically and with great personal commitment dedicated to patients in inpatient wards, child psychiatrists in outpatient clinics who cut from their free time in order to examine, check and treat a few more patients. We see the hunger for education and perceive, how much sense our field has, and we want to develop it, even if the conditions are very difficult,” said Goetz.
The DPN has 60 beds and 129 employees, 15 of whom are doctors. “The hospital went through the most difficult periods in the course of the 20th century and the beginning of the current one with honor. Whether it was war, economic crisis, totalitarianism, the wild transformation of healthcare in the 1990s or the delirium of ideologues in the last decade who wanted to abolish the entire inpatient area of child psychiatry ,” Goetz stated.
Approximately 50 percent of hospitalized patients in Opařany between the ages of three and 18 are from the South Bohemian region. In a year, the facility treats around a thousand children from all over the country on beds and in ambulances. The DPN in Opařany is one of only three workplaces of this kind in the country. In addition, as the only hospital in the country, it has a specialized department for patients with severe neurodevelopmental disorders and aggressive manifestations.
The Czech Republic salutes the children of Jihočeský
Source: www.ceskenoviny.cz
