Photo: Strahinja Aćimović/TanjugWaiting lists in hospitals, an essential problem of the healthcare system in Serbia, will be abolished. Or at least that's what Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić says. Health Minister Zlatibor Lončar announced that around 3.000 citizens, who have been waiting a long time for a scanner, will complete their examinations next weekend. How feasible is this kind of healthcare reform
The President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, stated that the waiting lists, on which there are 68.586 patients, are a shame for Serbia and that the country has decided to try to locate the problem, recognize it and begin to solve it.
"In two or three weeks, there will be no waiting list for scanners, and we will do it immediately with an MRI." We will see that in a year we have less than 5.000 or 10.000 people on the waiting lists, to solve what has been a decades-long problem", said Vučić.
He stated that hip and knee surgery can take up to nine years and that people have died without waiting to be operated on.
"We have to make a solution by the end of September." By June or the end of next year, there is no longer any waiting list for anything. We suffered a lot from that, and our incompetence, stupidity and indolence.... It has to end," said Vučić.
Vučić stated that he is aware that there will be a lot of opposition, but that he will demand responsibility, because the state provides the money.
"A disproportionate amount of money has been invested in health care to the total budget of Serbia, and that sum exceeds 3,5 billion euros," said Vučić.
Lončar: "There is no compromise on abolishing the list"
During that time, the Minister of Health Zlatibor Lončar spoke with the directors of all health institutions in Serbia regarding the analysis of the activities undertaken precisely with the aim of reducing and abolishing the waiting list, the Ministry of Health announced.
He says that everyone who is on the waiting list for the scanner, and there are about 3.000 of them, will be invited to undergo the examination next weekend, September 21 and 22.
"I believe that in our health system we have enough quality and professional health workers, we have the most modern hospitals and the most modern devices, and with more responsibility and better organization, we can fulfill our goal, which is to abolish the waiting list," said Lončar.
He claims that the Ministry of Health will provide all health institutions with all kinds of help and support, in terms of purchasing the necessary additional equipment and apparatus, as well as providing the missing professional staff.
In addition, the meeting analyzed the results of the free preventive check-up campaign, during which more than 145.000 citizens underwent check-ups in just five days in our health institutions, and Lončar said that the continuation of this campaign is in the interest of all citizens.
Longest lists for hip, knee and cataract surgery
Close to 69.000 citizens are currently waiting for a diagnostic procedure or operation. These are the data as of today's date, published on the website of the Republic Health Insurance Fund.
Most patients, almost 20.000, are waiting for the installation of a knee prosthesis, almost 15.000 of them for the installation of a hip prosthesis, and more than 7.000 people are waiting for the installation of lenses and cataract surgery.
In this regard, the director of the Clinic for Eye Diseases "Prof. Dr. Ivan Stanković", Prof. Dr. Miroslav Stamenković, said that an analysis with added efforts and capacities is planned, which would lead to the acceleration of treatment procedures.
He also states that the number of people undergoing surgery who are older than 80 or 90 has increased recently. broadcast by RTS.
Professor Zoran Gojković, advisor to the Minister of Health, reminds us that waiting lists have been a decades-long problem.
"Unfortunately, there are fewer and fewer highly qualified personnel and people who want to deal with difficult surgical procedures that require great responsibility and commitment," said Gojković.
He adds that waiting lists are generally longer for expensive procedures, that life expectancy is getting older, and our senior citizens want to be active, and that this is the situation everywhere in the world.
The problem is not money, but organization
Gojković adds that there are no financial obstacles to canceling the lists, but that a different organization and discipline is actually needed.
"I think the key to this whole problem is a multidisciplinary approach by all of us, and what is certain is that we will all have to change." Both doctors, administration and patients, which is the biggest problem here in the Republic of Serbia, because everyone is in favor of change, but nothing changes," says Prof. Gojković.
He announces that an announcement will follow shortly about the system's work on the problem and points out that a period of networking is needed.
"At the moment, we don't have any waiting lists for any urgent treatment," said Gojković.
Cleaning the waiting list in Niš
In April of last year, after almost 100 days and 12 consecutive weekends during which the staff of the Clinic for Cardiac Surgery in Niš worked without monetary compensation, their goal was achieved - the waiting lists were cleared.
The waiting lists in Niš were too long at the time, so the doctors, led by the then director of the Cardiac Surgery Clinic, Dr. Dragan Milić, decided to operate on patients on weekends without any monetary compensation.
"The waiting list with 149 patients at the beginning of this year has turned into an appointment list that now has 42 patients! Operations that last year had to wait for 3-4, and sometimes even 6 months, will no longer wait. In these 100 days, a total of 248 operations were performed, compared to 117 in the same period last year," Dr. Milić said at the time.
In March 2023, as many as 98 operations were performed in Niš, and the number of hospitalized patients increased, from the former average of 149 patients, to 353 patients.
Source: RTS
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