Emergency room visits increase

Prague emergency rooms last year treated 140,788 patients, an increase of several hundred over 2015. Adults were treated most often, and about a quarter of the patients came from Central Bohemia and one out of 10 were foreigners, according to an analysis conducted for Prague City Hall.

Medical emergency rooms operate at seven locations in Prague and they have a budget of Kč 20.5 million.

According to the report, December is usually the busiest month due to influenza and other infectious diseases that generally occur in winter. In August, many people are on vacation and not in the city.

People from the Central Bohemia region accounted for 20 percent of the adult patients for emergency rooms. Children and dental patients from Central Bohemia were both at about 27 percent. Foreigners were at about 10 percent for emergency room services.

Some 55,522 people treated were adults, while 46,806 were children and 38,460 patients used dental emergency services. The largest group of patients were from Prague. December was the busiest month with 14,467 patients while August was least busy with 9,850 people.

Emergency rooms are located at Prague's four teaching hospitals — General Teaching Hospital (VFN), Motol Teaching Hospital (FNM), Military Teaching Hospital (ÚVN) and Teaching Hospital Královské Vinohrady (FNKV) — plus Thomayerova Hospital, Na Bulovce Hospital and the Prague municipal policlinic. Motol sees the largest number of emergency patients. People with aching teeth most often go to the municipal clinic.

Prague has a population of 1.27 million, and the metropolitan area has some 2.16 million.