March the 27th, 2022 - The well known Zagreb Rebro hospital is finally set to ''go under the knife'' itself in the form of a 70 million euro renovation which will see the addition of a brand new multifunctional building.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Marija Crnjak writes, at the tail end of last week, the (newly crowned) Minister of Physical Planning, Construction and State Property, Ivan Paladina, and the director of the Zagreb Clinical Hospital (Rebro) Ante Corusic signed an agreement on a project for the renovation and reconstruction of the Zagreb Rebro hospital called "Phase III", which is worth the aforementioned figure of 70 million euros.

The new multifunctional building of the Zagreb Rebro hospital will be constructed within the existing location, and all of the funds intended for the construction and renovation have been secured from a World Bank loan. The new part of the hospital will span a massive 27,800 square metres in total and will have eight floors, as well as a garage with five floors and an emergency heliport will be built and opened.

Minister Ivan Paladina pointed out that this project is an example of quality and concrete cooperation between the Zagreb Rebro hospital, the competent ministries and the profession.

“When we have a clear common goal and when everyone involved in the project gives their maximum contribution, then things work properly. This is a positive example that we want to apply to all other reconstruction procedures that we need to tackle after the earthquake, in which the state and the profession will participate even more actively, as will the public,'' said Paladina.

Hospital director Ante Corusic also noted that Phase III is part of the strategic document for the development of the Zagreb Rebro hospital, which is about ten years old now, and the project was additionally prolonged by the devastating earthquake of March 2020. That said, now that handsome World Bank loans totalling 81.8 million US dollars have been obtained, and additional funds through the NPOO totalling 25 million euros have also been secured, things can finally get moving in the right direction.

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January the 8th, 2022 - Deputy Rebro hospital director Milivoj Novak believes that there's no real point in continuing to test when we inevitably pass the mark of 50% of those being tested turning out to be positive for the novel coronavirus. He isn't for stricter measures, either.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, deputy Rebro hospital director Milivoj Novak, commented on the epidemiological situation in Zagreb's largest hospital for N1 as Omicron spreads.

"The situation is primarily under control, we have a lot of testing going on, 620 people were tested yesterday, the percentage of those infected is high. What's important to us is the following, we've prepared 250 beds which should cover months, and we're below 90 percent full, there are less than 30 patients in the intensive care unit and at the moment there is no danger that we will become overwhelmed currently,'' Milivoj Novak said.

Those contracting the infection and becoming unwell are getting younger and younger, he pointed out, but the good thing is that the number of seriously ill people needing hospital treatment is not growing. "It gives us hope that this is going to get better," he added.

"It's mostly unvaccinated people getting sick. Of course, the vaccinated, especially if they have serious diseases and belong to risk groups, can also get sick, but in principle, those who aren't vaccinated are the ones becoming unwell, they can also become extremely seriously ill,'' warned Milivoj Novak.

Milivoj Novak is against the introduction of any stricter measures

Asked how worried he is about the new coronavirus variant, Omicron, Milivoj Novak says it would be too bold to say they're' ''happy'' about Omicron. "According to some reports, the clinical picture of people infected with Omicron seems to be milder, but it would be too bold to say at this point, that that's what we all want," Novak said.

Speaking about the tightening of the country's epidemiological measures, Novak said that the current measures are "okay, but we don't adhere to them".

“We went through a lockdown. This is an epidemiologically good thing, but it isn't good for the functioning of society. Now we're paying the price of Christmas, and we'll pay the price of the New Year and we're also waiting to pay the price of people going skiing,'' said the deputy director of KBC Zagreb.

As for testing, he pointed out that the problem is that the maximum possible number of those needing to be tested has now been reached. "We tested 620 patients yesterday, we can't test more people than that, and when the percentage exceeds 50 percent of positive results, does it make sense to test even more?" Everyone is infected," Milivoj Novak said.

He hopes that the collapse of the healthcare system will not happen, because they have both plan B and plan C and they're well prepared.

"In theory, it's possible that everything might collapse, but I don't believe that will happen," he concluded.

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November the 23rd, 2021 - Six Rebro Hospital (KBC Zagreb) hospital employees have been dismissed after refusing to regularly test for the presence of the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2.

To briefly bring you up to speed in case you haven't been following, several weeks ago a decision made by the Croatian Civil Protection Directorate was made that stated that all employees in the health and social care sector must have valid covid certificates, proving their vaccination status, that they've recovered from the virus in a specific time period, or that they have recently tested negative. The move was also intended for everyone who wanted to enter a health and/or social care facility unless it was a medical emergency.

Those who refuse to show their covid certificates and those who are not vaccinated and/or recovered who refuse to be tested regularly were warned when the rule came into force that they would likely be warned and then dismissed. That has occurred now on multiple occasions.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, six Rebro Hospital employees received extraordinary termination of their employment contracts because they persistently refused to show a valid digital covid certificate upon arrival at work and didn't want to be tested.

As RTL has learned, the documentation on the termination of the employment contract was sent to six employees of Zagreb's Rebro Hospital, and the information was confirmed by the deputy director of the hospital, Dr. Milivoj Novak.

The director of Rebro Hospital, Dr. Ante Corusic, previously emphasised that the institution has 6,156 employees, 12 of whom refused to be tested and didn't have a covid certificate to present when going to work. Two of them later changed their minds on the matter and started accepting regular coronavirus testing, one employee was fired, and the others, the director said at the time, would be fired in accordance with the law and the decisions of the Workers' Council.

However, the Healthcare Workers' Union claims that the Workers' Council did not comment on the dismissals of these six Rebro Hospital employees because none of them even asked for them to step in or make a comment.

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November the 7th, 2021 - Six KBC Zagreb (Rebro) employees have been fired after refusing to be vaccinated against the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, as well as for refusing to be regularly tested for the virus' presence.

The ongoing coronavirus pandemic is once again biting hard here in Europe as the season changes and people begin spending more and more time indoors as a result of the colder weather. Infections here in Croatia have climbed to numbers never seen before during the entire pandemic and new measures are now in force to try to combat the rapidly escalating situation.

Hospitals are fearing the same situation we experienced last year and some are already having to make enormous alterations to the way things function to try to deal with the current wave of infections, which are alarmingly high. The vaccination rate in Croatia is still very poor, and a lack of respirators for those with a more severe clinical picture is once again a huge concern. 

Most medical staff across Croatia have been fully vaccinated, some have recently accepted their third dose, all with the aim of protecting the most vulnerable and unwell people in society they are typically dealing with. That isn't the case for all, however, and given the fact that vaccination against coronavirus isn't mandatory, some have refused. Those who refuse must then agree to be very regularly tested for the presence of the virus, but some have even refused that. As a result, they've lost their jobs.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, three nurses, a medical technician, an assistant and an administrator were fired from their employment positions at KBC Zagreb because they did not want to be vaccinated or tested, as was announced on Friday.

“The reason for the dismissal of these individuals is their refusal to be vaccinated or, alternatively, be tested for COVID-19 twice a week. They, after being told they could not come to work without a COVID certificate, used their rights to leave, and partly went on sick leave. However, when they exhausted all of their legal 'leave' possibilities, and still didn't want to be vaccinated or tested, they were handed an extraordinary dismissal,'' said prof.dr. Ante Corusic, the director of KBC Zagreb, in conversation with Jutarnji list.

Corusic also confirmed that the process of terminating the employment contract for four more employees is underway for the exact same reason.

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October the 9th, 2021 - Croatia's largest medical facility, Zagreb's Rebro hospital, is preparing sanctions for eleven employees over issues regarding the recently introduced mandatory covid certificate system.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, Rebro hospital (KBC Zagreb) is preparing eleven official warnings before dismissal for non-compliance with the introduction of digital covid certificates in the health and social care system, Jutarnji list has unofficially found out.

The largest Croatian hospital seems to be the first to have decided to more severely sanction its employees. Namely, yesterday was the third day since the introduction of the obligation to present covid certificates, and in the first two days of the system's application, according to the Ministry of Health, out of a total of 52,561 employees in healthcare, 31 of them refused to be tested for the novel coronavirus.

Refusal to show a Croatian covid certificate and the refusal to be tested is treated by the hospital as non-attendance and people who fall into this category will not receive compensation for that day. Three consecutive days of what is considered absence (as it is in this case) is considered a serious violation of the terms of employment and the employer may issue a formal warning before dismissal.

At KBC Sestre Milosrdnice, another large Zagreb hospital and the one with the highest number of people who didn't want to be tested in the first two days of this new system being in place for all hospital staff, there are no formal warnings given before dismissing an employee.

As Jutarnji list has since learned, the reason is solely because no one has been absent from work for three days in a row - yet. Namely, three employees were tested, one presented a covid certificate, four decided to go on sick leave, one employee went on holiday, and one person had a day off due to being on call.

For all you need to know about coronavirus specific to Croatia, make sure to bookmark our dedicated section and select your preferred language.