Health Centers in Sarajevo Canton Introduce 24-Hour Duty

SARAJevo, (Patria) - Health centers in Sarajevo Canton will introduce 24-hour duty, with pediatric services, a family medicine team, and a laboratory available to citizens at all times.

The public was informed about this by the Prime Minister of Sarajevo Canton, Adem Zolj, the Minister of Health, Zilja Ademaj, and the Director of the Public Institution Health Center of Sarajevo Canton, Fuad Husić.

The working hours of central health centers have been extended until 10 PM, while those on the outskirts of the Canton will work until 8 PM. As for night duty, each health center will have an on-call pediatrician, a family doctor, and laboratory services, and after examination, if necessary, patients will be referred to the secondary or tertiary level of healthcare.

As Prime Minister Zolj pointed out, better organization of primary healthcare is necessary in the interest of the citizens of Sarajevo.

- All parents know what a problem it is when a child, for example, gets a fever during the night. Usually, in such situations, parents immediately went to the University Clinical Center Sarajevo (KCUS), and from now on, they will be able to go to the nearest health center. We have thus relieved the burden on tertiary healthcare, and in the future, we will work on enabling patients with minor health issues, prescription refills, and similar matters to communicate with their doctors by phone, meaning they won't have to come to the health center at all - said Prime Minister Zolj.

He added that the goal of reorganizing work is primarily to reduce queues in health centers, improve service, and speed up interventions.

Minister Ademaj emphasized that the main goal of changing the working hours of health centers was to introduce duty for the pediatric service.

- In addition to pediatricians, there will also be a family medicine team for school children and youth, and laboratory services. We had a problem with pediatrics before, and during the night, we did not have a single clinic for treating children from 8 PM to 7:30 AM. All these children mostly ended up at KCUS, which represented a significant burden for the Pediatric Clinic - said Ademaj.

She added that it was not possible to organize such duties in health centers until now because there was a deficit of pediatric staff in Sarajevo Canton.

- We have now hired new staff, and the selection process for doctors is still underway, so I hope these duties can now be provided - said Minister Ademaj.

According to Director Husić, the reorganization of working hours in health centers will also lead to a reduction in waiting lists, especially in radiology, and it is planned to open 26 new jobs.