South Moravian Region (City of Brno)

General characteristics: an overview of history and demography

The South Moravian Region is an administrative unit of the Czech Republic, located in the south-western part of its historical region of Moravia. The South Moravian Region is divided into seven districts: Blansko District, Brno-City District, Brno-Country District, Břeclav District, Hodonín District, Vyškov District and Znojmo District.

The South Moravian Region was established on 1 January 2000 by the Fundamental Law No. 347/1997 Coll. Unlike the Vysočina Region, the South Moravian Region has had a natural catchment area of Brno, the second largest city in the Czech Republic. Brno has two university hospitals and, more importantly, the Masaryk Memorial Cancer Institute (MMCI), which has a long history of providing cancer care, dating back to the second half of the 1920s.

The South Moravian Region has 1,168,577 inhabitants, out of which 571,864 (48.9%) are men and 596,713 (51.1%) are women (data from 2013 census). Population of the South Moravian Region accounts for about 11% of the entire population of the Czech Republic. The population density is rather unequal, as about 1/3 of the entire population of the South Moravian Region lives in Brno.

Comprehensive cancer care

The Comprehensive Cancer Centre (CCC) of Masaryk Memorial Cancer Institute in cooperation with University Hospital Brno and St. Ann's University Hospital in Brno provides cancer care not only to patients from the South Moravian Region, but also those referred from other regions. From its very beginning, MMCI endeavoured to provide comprehensive cancer care, which was a unique phenomenon in former Czechoslovakia. Even nowadays, MMCI is of supraregional importance, treating cancer patients from distant regions of the Czech Republic.

The above-mentioned CCC closely cooperates with smaller hospitals in Brno and in the entire South Moravian Region. The constituent parts of CCC (Masaryk Memorial Cancer Institute, University Hospital Brno, and St. Ann's University Hospital in Brno) provide more demanding cancer care from the technical and financial point of view, while cooperating hospitals are mainly involved in cancer diagnostics and secondary cancer prevention.

The Masaryk Memorial Cancer Institute plays the central role in cancer care in the South Moravian Region. It is a specialised comprehensive cancer centre with supraregional activity that is certified by two quality certificates: by the Joint Commission International (JCI), and by the Joint Accreditation Commission of the Czech Republic (SAK ČR). MMCI concentrates all essential branches of medicine to ensure comprehensive care, including cancer prevention, epidemiology and diagnostics, and particular modalities of cancer treatment and physiotherapy. Each year, almost 10,000 patients are hospitalised in MMCI and about 200,000 people pass through its outpatient departments.

In terms of cancer care, University Hospital Brno is specialised in haemato-oncology and in paediatric oncology. Together with St. Ann's University in Brno, University Hospital Brno is nowadays an indispensable part of the comprehensive cancer care in the South Moravian Region. All three constituent parts of the South Moravian CCC have joint indication commissions and multidisciplinary teams of experts: in this way, it is ensured that each patient treated in this CCC will be provided the best available cancer care.