The situation in healthcare in Montenegro is not even close to the standards of the countries in the region, let alone the European Union, whose membership is aspired to, announced Democratic Montenegro.
The catastrophic situation in health care institutions is perhaps not surprising if we know that their directors are elected based on party and not professional criteria.
"A lot of them are not interested in the situation in hospitals. It seems that they are not very interested in the quality of health care provided by the institution where they are managers, so instead of professional tasks, they perform party tasks that obviously recommend them for new mandates, especially during the elections", claims the Vice President of Democratic Montenegro, Vladimir Martinović, who points out that when the Democrats come to power, a clear rule will be known: healthcare for doctors, and politics for politicians.
Complete depoliticization of healthcare at all levels and greater state investment in equipment and staff is the only way we can meet the EU standards we strive for, he emphasized.
"What is special and the most important issue that must be worked on and improved every day is the hygiene in health institutions, which is in an alarming state, which has even resulted in deaths in Bjelopolje hospital. Such a case must not be allowed to ever happen again, even though we know very well that the instruments used in the treatment process are very old, and in some institutions they are not sterilized regularly, which also leads to a great danger for patients and their health," emphasizes Martinović.
"Obviously, the primary health care system is well thought out or maybe just a dead letter copied from the EU countries, but in practice the poor functioning of primary health care is shown. The family model is poorly applied, i.e. chosen doctor, where patients wait several days for their turn instead of faster service. There is a very small number of services that can be obtained at this level, which is completely incomprehensible, so we have a situation where instead of relieving the secondary level, it is more burdened, and patients are thus exposed to additional costs," he said.
He notes that in the majority of cases, citizens cannot provide treatment conditions at the secondary level in the areas where they live.
"The emergency medical aid service functions poorly, certain units are poorly equipped, vehicles are old with outdated equipment, and in this way adequate health care is not provided at the level it should be," the announcement states.
Martinović points out that the true responsibilities of institutions are not known, so very often one can hear of examples of patients walking from one institution to another without knowing how to solve the problem, which in most cases results in negative consequences for them.
In some institutions, scanners and X-ray machines sometimes do not work for a long period of time, which further complicates the situation for patients and prolongs their treatment, and the state does very little in this regard, but invests funds in ways known only to them, according to the Democrats.
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