Czechs will be required to pay a small consultation fee per visit to a doctor beginning January 1.

Starting January 1, consultation fees per visit to doctors would be required to pay 30 crowns (Ł0.83; 1.1 euros) and 60 crowns a day if confined in a hospital, BBC News reported.

The new policy is part of changes in the four-decade old Czech healthcare system in accordance with a massive reforms in the health sector.

BBC News reported some leading figures are opposed to such modification by calling on the people not to pay for the fees until a decision has been reached upon by the court.

The government had said to will impose the new system to stop people from abusing it.

In October 2007, the Prague Daily Mirror reported that patients are dissatisfied with the quality of food, and the way doctors and nurses behave towards them.