State planning big investments in healthcare in 2017 – Construction of clinical centers, renovation of hospitals, procurement of equipment...

This year will see the beginning of the construction of clinical centers in Belgrade, Novi Sad and Kragujevac, and the new clinical center in Nis will open in around two months, announced Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic on Sunday, January 22, 2017.

He said that this year's plans for healthcare were “impressive” and noted that the state was setting aside the largest part of the budget for that field precisely – around EUR 2 billion, and theat investments in healthcare in 2017 “will be the largest ones in the last 70 years”.

Vucic pointed out that the EUR 122 million will be invested in the Clinical Center of Serbia, whose reconstruction has been announced since 2009. A total of EUR 47 million will be invested in the construction and equipping of the Clinical Center in Novi Sad, which is to begin in April. The construction of the Clinical Center in Kragujevac, which will cost EUR 29 million, will begin in September, and the institution will get an additional EUR 15 million for equipment. A total of EUR 35 million was invested in the construction and equipping of the Clinical Center in Nis.

The prime minister said that four accelerators had been acquired the previous year and that the procurement of additional six to eight accelerators, to be distributed between Belgrade, Nis, Novi Sad, Kragujevac and Kladovo, was planned. The tender will open in two weeks.

– Following the procurement of the gamma knife, which has been used for 800 brain tumor treatment procedures, we are planning to procure a cyber knife, used for treating small tumors, as well. Patients need to go to Munich or Athens for such procedures, as those are the closest places using the cyber knife – the prime minister said.

The opening of three angio-halls, enabling doctors to act more quickly following a heart attack and save the patient's life, has also been planned for this year. One of them will be located in the Urgent Care Center, one in UHMC Bezanijska Kosa, and one in Cacak. The procurement of new scanners, magnetic resonance imaging scanners, X-ray devices and 25 emergency vehicles has also been announced.

The prime minister also announced that RSD 1.1 billion would be set aside in 2017 for the treatment of children with rare diseases.

As he said, the problem with charging for epidural anesthesia in Nis has been solved and the service is now free throughout the territory of Serbia.

Prime Minister Vucic also announced that the existing building of the Children's Hospital in Tirsova Street would be reconstructed during 2017, for which EUR 5 million would be set aside.

– A new building will be raised next to it – Tirsova 2. It will spread on 30,000 square meters and EUR 52 million will be invested in its construction and equipping – he explained.

A total of EUR 7.5 million will be invested in the reconstruction of GAK Visegradska, EUR 3.5 million in the pediatrics hospital in Zemun, EUR 17 million in the Institute for Cardiovascular Diseases Dedinje, EUR 12 million in the Neurosurgery Clinic, and EUR 3.9 million in equipping the Urgent Care Center in Belgrade.

– The Clinical Center Dragisa Misovic will be fully renovated, and the reconstruction of the first floor in this hospital should be completed in the next fifteen days. Negotiations with the European Investment Bank on re-purposing EUR 50 million of the loan, in order to reconstruct GAK Narodni Front, the Institute for Orthopedic Surgery Banjica and the Institute for Oncology and Radiology, are in progress – Vucic said.

The prime minister also said that nurses in Serbia would no longer have reduced wages and that doctors' salaries would be raised as well. As he stated, around 1,000 doctors and medical nurses have been employed in the past period and it has been announced that the trend will continue.