ZAGREB, 7 Nov 2021 - Croatia has a shortage of 207 family doctors and 104 gynecologists, the Croatian Chamber of Physicians (HLK) said earlier this week, adding that it is necessary to advertise residencies to increase the number of doctors in primary healthcare.

Amendments to the Healthcare Act should ensure better working conditions in primary healthcare as they are the main reason why young doctors are leaving Croatia, the HLK said after a meeting with representatives of the Health Ministry and the Croatian Health Insurance Fund (HZZO), which focused on the situation and future solutions in family medicine and gynecology.

Primary healthcare spends only a small portion of the HZZO budget and even a minor additional investment in this area of healthcare would greatly benefit both citizens and the health system, they said.

Besides the shortage, it is worrying that family doctors are 52 years old on average and 33% are over 60, including 184 over 65 who are eligible for retirement, the HLK said.

The situation is equally bad with primary healthcare gynecologists as there is a shortage of 31% or 104 doctors. One gynecologist has 5,500 patients on average, which means that at least 250,000 women don't have one in primary healthcare, and these doctors are 54 years old on average, the HLK said, adding that the situation is worst in Brod-Posavina, Bjelovar-Bilogora, and Lika-Senj counties.

Increasing the number of doctors would reduce the average number of patients per doctor and it is also necessary to relieve teams of administrative duties in order to improve quality and efficiency, HLK representatives said at the meeting.

Lack of investment in primary healthcare, which is expected to provide for 80% of citizens' health needs so as to relieve the more expensive hospital system, has resulted in less available health services and poorer treatment outcomes. However, family and general medicine doctors had more contact with patients during the pandemic, according to the HZZO's 2020 report.

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October the 15th, 2021 - The Croatian Emergency Medical Maritime Service is set to be richer for six fast vessels following the recent signing of a contract with two domestic shipyards.

As Jozo Vrdoljak/Novac/Jutarnji list writes, the Tehnomont Shipyard (Pula) and the Iskra Shipyard 1 from Sibenik have signed a Public Procurement Agreement with the Ministry of Health for the construction of six fast boats for the establishment of emergency medical care on the islands. The work of building and equipping six emergency medical boats is worth around 76.4 million kuna.

The Croatian production consortium won the tender as the most favourable bidder, and that tender was initially announced back in June 2020 by the Ministry of Health for the project "Establishment of an emergency medical maritime service by high-speed boats", funded mostly by EU funds. The agreed construction period is 24 months and the vessels will be stationed in Dubrovnik, Supetar on the island of Brac, Sibenik, Zadar, Rab and Mali Losinj.

The boats will all be purpose-built and equipped for the Croatian Maritime Medical Service and will raise the quality of care for all those who become injured or fall ill on the Croatian coast. They'll also be used for search and rescue missions in cases of maritime accidents and disasters.

"The construction and equipping of six fast boats for the establishment of the Croatian Emergency Maritime Medical Service is a significant step towards even better and more accessible emergency medical care on the Croatian islands," said Minister of Health Vili Beros. The director of the Croatian Institute of Emergency Medicine, Maja Grba-Bujevic, pointed out that this is an important project not only for emergency medicine but also because it represents great progress in maritime medicine across Croatia and in the entire Croatian healthcare system.

The Croatian shipyards Iskra and Tehnomont joined, as mentioned, a larger production consortium to make it easier to get this job, and as far as we know, this is probably just the beginning of their cooperation.

"This is the first step in the cooperation of our two shipyards because there's a mutual will to cooperate on new projects. Of course we'll decide on how things will be done from job to job, but in principle there is a will to cooperate. We have extensive experience in shipbuilding, especially in aluminum. We can't deny the fact that our shipyards are not technologically fully equipped, but professionally speaking, our personnel is very capable of building top-quality ships,'' they pointed out from the Tehnomont shipyard in Pula.

Roko Vuletic, one of the two directors of Iskra shipyard 1, points out that the cooperation of these two Croatian shipyards represents great potential for successful competition with the shipbuilding capacities on other markets as well. "This is an interesting niche, so we can enter other markets. In this way, we've increased our competitiveness and gained competitive advantages for both shipyards,'' concluded Vuletic.

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ZAGREB, 30 Sept 2021 - Health Minister Vili Beroš said on Thursday that on 28 September, the share of the staff in the healthcare system vaccinated against coronavirus was 70%, and this percentage was even higher among doctors alone, 86%.

"Inoculation is a guarantee for the downward trend in the epidemiological curve and for going back to a normal life," he informed the government.

In the last 24 hours, Croatia has registered 1,710 new cases of the infection with coronavirus, and that the share of positive tests had been 17.68%, Beroš added.

Hospitals are currently treating 745 COVID-19 patients and of them, 99 are placed on ventilators.

The minister warned that a share of persons on ventilators among the COVID hospitalizations had reached a record high level of 14%.

He said the hospital system was ready to provide effective protection to all persons who need hospital treatment.

Broken down by regions, the number of hospitalizations is oscillating, however, the biggest burden is still o the KBC Split hospital, according to the minister.

In the last week, community nurses visited over 5,000 unvaccinated senior citizens, and after the contact with their district nurses, 1,197 decided to get vaccinated, however, 76% refused immunization without any valid health reason, said Beroš.

Until 29 September, Croatia administered over 3.42 million doses of coronavirus vaccine, and 53.59% of the adult population have received at least a shot, while 50,24% have been fully vaccinated.

Interior Minister Davor Božinović said that the validity of COVID certificates concerning the recovery or vaccination of a certificate holder when crossing the border had been extended from 270 days to 365 days.

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ZAGREB, 28 May 2021 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenković on Friday formally opened the new building of the Sisak Hospital compounds that house an outpatient treatment department and unscheduled and emergency care services.

The implementation of the project, worth 132 million kuna, started in 2017, at the beginning of the term of the first cabinet of Prime Minister Plenković.

During his visit to Sisak today, Plenković recalled that his government had supported projects for outpatient facilities in 24 cities plus projects for unscheduled and emergency care service improvement in seven of those cities.

He said that the total investment in the upgrade of the Croatian public healthcare system stood at HRK 2.4 billion.

(€1= HRK 7.5)

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February the 5th, 2021 - Croatia's residents have rated the performance of the Croatian health system throughout the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, with a mixed bag of results.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, the availability of healthcare services during the coronavirus pandemic was assessed as good by 42 percent of Croatian citizens, every fifth term of examination, check up or procedure agreed before the pandemic was prolonged. This is part of the results obtained from an exclusive survey conducted by Ipsos for the health portal zelimzdravlje.com.

The results of the panel discussion were commented by the Minister of Health Vili Beros, Dr. Lucian Vukelic, the Director of the Croatian Health Insurance Fund, Dr. Renata Sabljar Dracevac, the President of the Parliamentary Committee for Health and Social Policy and MEPs doc.dr.sc. Tomislav Sokol and Suncana Glavak.

Due to the global pandemic of the novel coronavirus, the Croatian health system has adapted and introduced different ways of functioning, additional traumas with earthquakes have sadly also completely or partially disabled some institutions. The extent to which healthcare is available to Croatian residents is, as stated, the basis of the research conducted by Ipsos for the zelimzdravlje.com portal.

As was previously mentioned, according to the results, 42 percent of citizens rated the Croatian health system as good, and 14 percent rated it poorly. During the pandemic, 41 percent of people had a healthcare service previously agreed upon, of which a mere 16.5 percent managed to realise said procedure, while 11.2 percent of them had their care postponed and didn't receive a new date, and nine percent of the survey's respondents received their new postponed examination, check up or procedure.

The majority of citizens, 58.2 percent of them, managed to contact their primary care physician, 16.5 percent of them managed to do so with difficulty, and 3.1 percent failed to reach their primary care physician entirely.

Respondents who used the Croatian health system during the pandemic mostly felt safe, 48.2 percent of them claimed they did so, and rated the healthcare they received as 4.10. The Croatian health system was rated less safely and more poorly by those who didn't even use health services during the pandemic. It is a result that once again proves the discomfort and fear that the pandemic has caused in people who often decide to postpone necessary healthcare services on their own for fear of coming into contact with the novel virus and/or contracting the infection.

The results were presented at an online panel discussion organised by zelimzdravlje.com, where, as one of the panelists, the Minister of Health Vili Beros said:

''Many more economically stable and stronger countries have the task of dealing with all the challenges of the pandemic. When it comes down to it - our togetherness, our courage, solidarity and care for others is without competition,''

''The pandemic has so far cost the Croatian health system a massive 1.3 billion kuna, '' said Dr. Lucian Vukelic, the director of the Croatian Health Insurance Fund:

''Everything we needed to do, what we put in the budget, we managed to finance, at the end of last year we managed to solve most of the debt to pharmacies. The Croatian health system as such is stable for the time being. One billion and almost 300 million kuna spent so far on COVID-19 is a really big number that we've managed to finance so far,''

''The EU health programme has become independent and has increased by 12 times,'' commented doc.dr.sc. Tomislav Sokol, MEP, who presented the details of that program,me while MEP Suncana Glavak brought a cross-section of the European reaction to the pandemic crisis and the challenges facing Europe.

The experiences of oncology patients in Croatia during the coronavirus pandemic were also discussed.

Necessary examinations, medications and therapies for 58.2 percent of oncology patients in Croatia were made fully available to 58.2 percent of people who required them, were mostly available for 32.2 percent of such individuals, and were sadly unavailable for 9.1 percent of people.

The importance of prevention, but also adequate treatment of cancer, was emphasised by Dr. Renata Sabljar Dracevac in a panel discussion where she announced the relaunch of the initiative MPs against cancer.

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January the 26th, 2021 - Just how has the Croatian healthcare system coped under the heavy strain of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic when compared to other countries in the area?

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Marija Crnjak wries, when compared to other countries in the Mediterranean and Central Europe, the Croatian healthcare system has relatively good results in the quality of staff, hospital care, emergency care and private care, which was felt and continues to be felt in the coronavirus crisis.

At the same time, electronic regulations in Croatia are very widespread, with 80 percent of prescriptions in pharmacies now being electronic.

However, the mortality rate of patients with acute myocardial infarction is relatively high, which implies that hospital admissions should be of better quality, and waiting lists are a particularly difficult problem, according to a new report by the Italian foundation Fondazione Farmafactoring, supported by the factoring company BFF.

The report is based on statistics and surveys among healthcare staff and users, and data on healthcare debts, waiting lists, services and per capita allocations, all of which have been placed in the context of the pandemic, albeit focusing on the first wave of the pandemic which hit back in the spring of 2020.

The report, which compares nine healthcare systems in the EU (Croatia, the Czech Republic, France, Greece, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia and Spain), shows that the Croatian healthcare is just behind Italy in terms of healthcare debts, and that in the Czech Republic, although have stabilised finances, the level of available services is much lower than it is in Croatia.

Croatia is the country with the lowest spending on healthcare, although in relative terms it is in third place in terms of its share in GDP, following both Poland and Slovakia. Experts stressed the need for a larger share of private funding and cost sharing.

They also noted unequal access, the late treatment of chronic diseases, poor coordination, and the general overburdening of general practitioners. In addition to that, the geographical distribution of the Croatian healthcare system's services and other such resources varies greatly across the country, the analysis points out.

One of the main issues concerns the inefficient allocation of resources, which often, instead of planning in advance, concentrates on retrospective loss financing, which is why the BFF has made its services available to institutions in Croatia.

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ZAGREB, Dec 21, 2020 - Health Minister Vili Beros said on Monday that the COVID crisis had so far cost the health system HRK 927.4 million.

Data show that by December 18, HRK 574.4 million was spent on testing, HRK 268.9 million on treatment and more than HRK 83 million on sick leaves, Beros said at the national COVID-19 crisis management team's press conference.

He also said that a meeting was being held at the Health Ministry with drug wholesalers regarding the health system's debt to them.

Beros said that the number of new COVID-19 infections had started dropping.

The average number of services provided in all health institutions in Croatia is at 67.21% compared to the second week of December 2019.

"These are encouraging data as they show that despite the burden of COVID-19 positive patients we are finding ways, strength and opportunities to respond to other needs, especially in oncology," Beros said.

Despite the fact that the health system has completely adapted to COVID patients, the number of services provided in Zagreb's hospitals is at 74% compared to the second week of December last  year, and only the KB Dubrava hospital, which is completely focused on treating coronavirus patients, has provided 11% of other services.

Other patients using KB Dubrava's services, 3,993 of them, have been sent to other health institutions via the call centre, Beros said.

He added that there were also institutions like the Magdalena Clinic which is at 119% of provided services due to taking over some of KB Dubrava's cardiac surgery patients.

Beros said there would be no changes regarding the realisation of the right of health workers to a full salary after getting infected with COVID.

He said that all those who had got infected at work would receive 100% of their salary, but they have to ask their employer for confirmation.

(€1= HRK 7.5)

ZAGREB, October 19, 2020 - A member of the government's Scientific Council, epidemiologist Branko Kolaric, has expressed concern about Croatia's healthcare system becoming overloaded due to a surge in the daily number of coronavirus cases.

Speaking in an interview with the public television service HRT on Sunday evening, Kolaric was asked to comment on warnings from the scientific community that there were between 50,000 and 100,000 infected people in Zagreb and that over the next week Croatia might see 2,000 new infections daily, from the current 1,000.

Noting that he did not know what these estimates were based on, Kolaric said that it was possible that the number of daily cases would reach 2,000. "We have come from 500 to 1,000 daily infections and it is not impossible for this number to grow to 2,000," he said.

The epidemiologist said that the present attitude of the public towards the epidemiological measures in place and their adherence to these measures could lead to the public health system overloading. He said it was questionable whether the present measures were enough to reduce the number of new infections, expressing concern that the health system might become overburdened soon.

Today 548 people in Croatia are hospitalised for COVID-19, in neighbouring Slovenia the University Clinical Centre in Ljubljana is almost filled to capacity, while the Czech Republic has agreed with Germany on the possible treatment of its patients in Bavaria and Saxony, it was said.

Speaking of the number of hospitalised cases in Croatia, Kolaric said that the focus now was on COVID-19 cases and that there was less hospital capacity for treatment of other diseases.

Commenting on the interviewer's remark that the measures in place in Croatia were considerably milder than those elsewhere in Europe and whether tighter restrictions could be expected, Kolaric said that such decisions fell within the remit of the national coronavirus response team, but that he believed the measures would have to be tightened.

Health minister calls for more coronavirus testing points in Zagreb

Health Minister Vili Beros has called on the Croatian Public Health Institute, the Fran Mihaljevic Hospital for Infectious Diseases and the Andrija Stampar Teaching Institute for Public Health to urgently organise additional COVID-19 testing points in Zagreb so that people would not have to wait in kilometres-long lines.

"Our aim is to reduce the kilometres-long lines of people waiting to get tested. I am confident that all the competent authorities will find the way and space for additional testing," Beros said on Facebook on Sunday. 

In the last 24 hours, 286 new coronavirus cases have been identified in Zagreb and 830 people have been ordered to self-isolate. Currently, the number of active cases in the city stands at 1,336 and 6,410 people are in self-isolation.