ZAGREB, Aug 25, 2020 – Health Minister Vili Beros said on Tuesday, after a meeting with representatives of primary health care, that he would propose to the government central financing of doctors’ specialisations, given the increasing outflow of doctors and lack of funding on the local level.
“Each day we have fewer family doctors because they are retiring. The cause of this shortage is the problem of financing specialisations. There is often not enough funds at the local and regional level to finance specialisations, which results in fewer doctors specialising in that field,” Beros told reporters.
I will propose central financing of specialisations to the government, Beros said after the meeting with associations of doctors in primary care.
Vikica Krolo, the head of the KOHOM association of family doctors and deputy head of the Croatian Medical Chamber, said that the meeting had been initiated due to burning issues that had come to the fore during the coronavirus pandemic, primarily due to a staff shortage caused by long-standing devastation of primary care.
She warned that in the last four years the number of family doctors had dropped from 2,400 to 2,200, 30% of the doctors currently working in the system were over 60 years old and about to retire, and there were 160 retired doctors who still work.
There is little interest among young people, merely 175 specialisations are underway, and the specialisation plan for the period until 2025 envisages 504 specialisations in family medicine. The number of registrars in hospitals has increased, and there are currently 3,000 of them.
Krolo noted that most doctors had followed recommendations during the coronavirus crisis and opened all communication channels to patients. The number of patients coming personally to practices has decreased, but the number of contacts has increased, ranging between 100 and 200 per doctor.
Krolo warned that in the autumn there could be waiting lists for family medicine for the first time, due to the shortage of doctors.
For the latest travel info, bookmark our main travel info article, which is updated daily.
Read the Croatian Travel Update in your language – now available in 24 languages
Join the Total Croatia Travel INFO Viber community.
