Ophthalmologists cannot work privately: Consents for additional work for doctors at the KCCG Eye Clinic have also been withdrawn

The Administration of the Clinical Center of Montenegro (KCCG) has withdrawn the approvals for doctors from the Clinic for Eye Diseases to work in private healthcare institutions.

This was confirmed to "Vijesti" by the largest healthcare institution and explained that the measure to limit additional work is in line with the needs of the public healthcare system.

They also said that doctors from the Eye Diseases Clinic will be able to work part-time in public health institutions.

Unofficial sources claim that the decision to limit overtime work came about because some doctors refused to work overtime at the Nikšić hospital, from which they had been sending requests in vain for a month for doctors from the KCCG Eye Clinic to provide additional assistance in resolving the waiting list.

The KCCG said that the measure is in line with the needs of the public health system.

"The decision was made following an assessment of the number of available medical staff and the assessment that public health institutions have spatial and organizational capacities that allow doctors, through additional engagement, to make a greater contribution to the public health system, primarily in shortening waiting lists," the KCCG responded.

They claim that additional work in the PZU will be considered after considering the impact of such a decision on shortening the waiting list.

According to data from the KCCG website, 805 patients are waiting for surgery at the Eye Diseases Clinic.

The consent for additional work was previously revoked for some doctors at the Clinic for Orthopedics and Traumatology of the KCCG. This decision came after nine orthopedists, dissatisfied with the appointment of a new acting director, refused to work additional work at their parent institution - the KCCG.

Waiting lists in Montenegro are a decade-long problem, which during the previous years was mainly solved by supplementary work, by banning supplementary work for private sector employees who work in organizational units where the waiting period is longer than 30 days for a health service, and sometimes by introducing private sector workers, which was paid by the state.

Recently, after almost a decade, a new Regulation on the performance of additional work by healthcare workers and healthcare associates entered into force.

A healthcare worker, as before, may perform additional work if, among other things, he/she provides quality healthcare services in full and within the prescribed working hours at the workplace determined by the act on the internal organization and systematization of the institution, in accordance with the plan and program of work of that institution. This is monitored with the help of indicators, including waiting lists.

The new rulebook, unlike the old one, prescribes forms for the request and written consent, which formalizes and standardizes the procedure for all public institutions, and also prescribes in detail the content of the consent. The explicit obligation to keep a register of consents has been deleted. The new rulebook specifies that the request must contain, among other things, the organizational unit to which the employee is assigned, the name and headquarters of the entity for which he intends to work, a job description, the time of additional work, signature and date of submission of the request.

The old rulebook stipulated that a healthcare worker could not work part-time if he or she had been disciplined in the last five years, while the new one shortened that period to two years.

The new rulebook makes a distinction for the first time between minor and other violations of work obligations. If an employee has been sentenced once for a minor violation, he or she may perform additional work after six months from the date the decision becomes final, and if he or she has been sentenced twice, after one year from the date the second decision is made.

The old regulation required that the employee had no objections from the Commission for the Control of Quality of Healthcare, without a clear time limit. The new regulation stipulates that objections from the last two years are considered.

Instead of the previous formulation that an employee must not have "founded complaints from citizens", the new regulation uses a more precise expression: he must not have founded complaints from patients about his work, in accordance with the law regulating patients' rights.

The new rulebook maintains the requirement that an employee has not been absent from work for more than three months in the past year, but introduces exceptions. Absence will not be an obstacle if it is a temporary inability to work with compensation of 100 percent of the base salary, as well as maternity, paternity or parental leave.

For the first time, additional work for directors of health institutions has been limited. They may only work additional work in the health institution they manage, with prior written consent from the Ministry of Health.