Czech Republic's Chief Hygienist: Toxic Baby Formula Scandal Could Happen Again — There's No Money

The Chief Public Health Officer of Czechia and Director of the National Institute of Public Health (SZÚ), Barbora Macková, has admitted that the scandal over toxic baby formula could well repeat itself, simply because the public health system lacks the funds for laboratory testing and for retaining specialists. She made the statement at an August meeting of the Senate's Health Committee, where she met for the first time with the families of the affected children.

The case concerns a special medical formula for sick infants, which the manufacturer had been recalling from the market over the risk of cereulide toxin contamination. Parents spent months unsuccessfully asking hygiene authorities to test the formula, until a group of journalists finally sent samples to a laboratory in Belgium. The results were alarming: in three out of four packages tested, toxin levels were nine times higher than the safety limits set for infants.

A Shortage of Staff and Funding

According to Macková, regional hygiene stations received budgets this year that were a third smaller than last year's, and about 10% of SZÚ employees are paid below the guaranteed minimum wage — meaning specialists are simply leaving the system. "If public health protection isn't strengthened, there may soon be no one left to do the work," she warned.

Asked whether she would have tested the affected families' formula samples had funding been available, Macková replied: "Very likely, yes" — but stressed that she could not judge the situation in hindsight. She acknowledged that the main failure was in communication with the parents, rather than the absence of testing itself.

Bonuses Amid Multimillion-Crown Losses

The scandal took on an added dimension after reports emerged that Macková and her two deputies received bonuses totaling roughly 1.5 million crowns last year — even as the institute itself ended the year with a loss of 33.5 million crowns, and rank-and-file staff faced cuts to their meal allowances as part of cost-saving measures.

Macková confirmed the figures: her own annual bonus came to 588,400 crowns and was awarded by the Ministry of Health, not by herself. The bonuses for her two deputies — 435,120 and 440,000 crowns — were awarded by her personally, in her capacity as institute director, and she said she takes full personal responsibility for that decision.

She also clarified that the temporary reduction in meal allowances, in effect until the end of 2026, is not a pay cut but part of a broader package of savings measures affecting procurement, contracts, investments and unfilled vacancies. Priorities remain paying salaries, keeping the laboratories running, and fulfilling the institute's mandatory statutory functions. Macková described the root cause of SZÚ's losses as systemic: the cost of the professional work the institute performs for the state simply doesn't match the level of funding it receives.

Source: seznamzpravy.cz