[History, Present State and Perspectives of Czech Burns Medicine.]

Care for burn patients is defined in most developed countries as an independent multidisciplinary specialty (burn medicine) and it is concentrated to specialized units, which are sufficiently staffed with appropriate space area and equipment. Since the 50s of the previous century in the former Czechoslovakia, there were five such units, three of which were in the Czech Republic (Prague, Ostrava, Brno). The specialty successfully developed and achieved prestige also abroad, mainly due to uninterrupted contacts with the foreign units. Until approximately mid 90s of the previous century, an increasing trend of development accelerated (new technologies, better space area and equipment, acquisition of new knowledge from abroad, etc.). On the other hand, two negative tendencies occurred. These were negative economic balance of care for burn patients, which was due to the current system of financing healthcare, and a completely inappropriate system of postgraduate education for burn medicine specialty. These two factors cause that young doctors are not interested in the specialty and there is a risk of its stagnation in case that the units will not be at least in an even economical balance and will not be able to offer young doctors anything in terms of financial rewards and further professional growth.