Zdravotní turistika v České republice a možnosti zapojení Ministerstva zdravotnictví do její podpory

The goal of this master thesis is to analyze issues connected to medical tourism, to show, how the Czech Republic could benefit from supporting this niche and imply whether this support is worth it. Bearing this in mind, I suggest a plan of medical tourism support, which could be implemented by the Czech Ministry of Health. In the theoretical part, the term medical tourism is defined and it is determined what implications medical tourism might have for both source and destination countries. The legal framework on medical tourism is described and I mention reasons why it should be the Ministry of Health's responsibility to support the segment. The analytical part describes and analyzes in depth the current state of medical tourism in the Czech Republic. A research on the hospitals' position on medical tourism has been carried out. Furthermore, a questionnaire had been sent to embassies of the Czech Republic around the world. Based on discoveries made in the analytical part, I conclude that although medical tourism in the Czech Republic has certain potential, this potential has its limits. The main limit might be that public hospitals have little motivation to seek for revenues outside of subsidies. In accordance with the aforementioned, I suggest a plan on medical tourism support for the Ministry of Health and a budget of its implementation is also established. The thesis also mentions its possible connection to medical export.