Vladimír Král, who was instrumental in the development of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, was one of the important personalities of the Bata Hospital. Few people today realise that home births used to be the norm and hospital births were a novelty that aroused considerable mistrust.
The conceptual design of the construction of the maternity ward, its internal layout and organisation, including modern equipment, was prepared by a well-known gynaecologist, doc. MUDr. František Pachner, Head of Department of Gynaecology in the Ostrava Hospital in Zábřeh, who also recommended his follower and younger colleague, Dr. Vladimír Král, for the job in Zlín. The effect of the favourable conditions created by the new health facility soon became obvious. As early as 1935, seventy percent of infants from the Zlín hospital catchment area were born in the maternity ward, and a few years later, still before World War II, home births were already an exception.
Since the maternity ward opening, Dr. Vladimír Král served as its head and his work was associated with this health facility for the next forty years.
Primář Vladimír Král, 1940 (SOkA Zlín, o. č. 3864, p. č. 4)
