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The Czech ombudsman has criticized the country’s system of “drunk tanks” where people under the influence of alcohol or drugs can be taken to sober up. The ombudsman says clients are often treated unnecessarily harshly at these stations which are underfinanced, and have poorly trained staff. The Czech Health Ministry however says new legislation should help fix most of the issues.

Anyone wishing to change doctors in the Czech Republic can do so with relative ease; the opposite, however, is not true for doctors. Doctors with ‘problem’ patients, who routinely ignore therapy or display obvious mistrust, are stuck. The Czech Medical Chamber wants that changed: for medical professionals to be able to refuse patients who refuse to help themselves.

Cancer specialists at Prague’s Motol hospital have given the go-ahead for British cancer patient Ashya King to receive what may be life-saving treatment at Prague’s Proton Therapy Centre. The five-year- old, whose case has made world headlines, was discharged from a hospital in Malaga, Spain, on Monday morning and transported to Prague on a specially prepared private jet.

Four people died on Thursday when a bridge collapsed by a small town in the centre of the Czech Republic. The dead were construction workers involved in the renovation of the structure. Questions are now being asked about responsibility for the tragedy.

President Miloš Zeman is set to announce an increase in the Czech Republic’s defence budget at the NATO summit in Wales on Thursday. Czech leaders also support plans to create a rapid-response military force that should be approved by NATO leaders at the meeting.

Five-year-old cancer patient Ashya King could soon receive proton beam radiation treatment in Prague. The boy has been the centre of media attention in the UK after his parents removed him from a hospital in England in a bid to get better treatment; they were arrested in Spain but have subsequently been released. Now all eyes are on Prague’s Proton Therapy Centre, where Ashya could be admitted in the not too distant future. I discussed the latest situation surrounding his treatment with the institution’s director of strategy Iva Taťounová.

Addressing the lower house on Tuesday President Miloš Zeman made it clear he has no intention of allowing a new civil service bill which is near winning approval, to come into law. Mr Zeman is dissatisfied with compromises made by the government, saying that in its present form the bill would fail in its main goal to depoliticize the civil service.

The National Museum in Prague has made its biggest acquisition over the past fifty years, acquiring more than 700 000 documents and other items from the Museum of the Workers’ Movement. Among the new possessions are valuable objects of art as well as curiosities, such as figure carved out of bread by Czechoslovak president Antonín Zápotocký. I spoke to the National Museums’ curator Marek Junek about the new acquisitions.

With elections to local councils and a third of the Senate just six weeks away, politicians are once again taking to the streets in a bid for voter support. Financially exhausted by last years’ general elections and elections to the European Parliament just three months ago, parties are spending less money on billboards and ads in favour of direct voter contact campaigns.

This week marked the 20th anniversary of Linka bezpečí, a helpline available for anyone up to the age of 18 (or if studying, to 26) to call at moments of difficulty. Over 20 years, the helpline has answered millions of calls and addressed countless problems, some of them very serious.