Primary Healthcare Short of 207 Family Doctors, 104 Gynecologists

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.

For more, make sure to check out our dedicated lifestyle section.

 

Subscribe to our newsletter

the fields marked with * are required

Email: *
First name:
Last name:
Gender:	Male Female
Country:
Birthday:	[DD] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 [MM] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 [YYYY] 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023

Please don't insert text in the box below!