Supervisory and Management Boards of 13 Institutions in KS Cost 2.5 Million KM Annually

Following the decision of the Federation Government to form a working group to conduct a feasibility study for the merger of the General Hospital “Prim.dr. Abdulah Nakaš“ and UKCS, the new director of the Health Insurance Fund, dr. Samir Turković, signed off on an older study conducted by the previous director, Safeta Borovac. It is a two-and-a-half-page document from December 2014, outlining the reasons for merging the two institutions. 

KCUS and the General Hospital are two out of a total of 13 healthcare institutions in the Canton of Sarajevo.

The brief study deals with old data from over a year ago. According to this study, the key problem for both hospitals is the poor utilization of capacity. For both institutions, the Health Insurance Fund allocated 128.1 million KM that year. The number of employees at UKCS is 3,117, and at the General Hospital, there are 585 employees.

Study Lacking Real Information

KCUS has 1,952 beds, with an occupancy rate of 66.3 percent that year, while the General Hospital has 330 beds with an occupancy rate of 54.29 percent. This is not enough for profitability, the excerpt from the study states. Doctors at the General Hospital have already complained that patients were unnecessarily referred from the General Hospital to KCUS.

Ultimately, bed occupancy is the only data presented in the three pages referred to as a study. The content is manipulated to serve the political desire to merge the General Hospital with KCUS. This is evident from the data presented that the General Hospital spent 333 thousand KM on electricity and 816 thousand KM on heating. These figures for KCUS are simply omitted. The authors of such a superficial and manipulated study should be asked: Since merging the two hospitals is just a prelude to abolishing the General Hospital, so that the federal administration can move in afterwards, how much will that bureaucratic apparatus and burden cost for electricity and heating?              

Believe it or not, these are all the reasons for merging the two hospitals and rationalizing the hospital system.     

Novinska agencija Patria has obtained data showing that the management and supervisory boards of 13 institutions in KS cost 2.5 million KM annually. In other words, that is the cost of two years of electricity and heating expenses for the General Hospital. Everything is stated in this tragic study, except for the methods of saving money. So, here is an opportunity to do that with the management and supervisory boards. If their fees were halved, it would cover the key annual expenses of the General Hospital.

Ultimately, quality service and significant financial resources would be achieved with a proper healthcare reform.     

The Sarajevo Canton Health Insurance Fund finances the operations of 13 healthcare institutions with funds amounting to approximately 350 million KM annually. The General Hospital does not spend even a tenth of this sum. The most expensive part of healthcare services is medication. Extremely expensive yet essential medications necessitate the implementation of healthcare system reform for better patient treatment.

They Don't Even Know the Number of Doctors in the Canton 

To approach healthcare reform, matters must be precisely and thoroughly elaborated. These two and a half pages evoke dread and horror in people. The current Government of the Canton of Sarajevo has admitted that no one knows the exact number of employees and their profiles, nor the precise figures of doctors in all healthcare institutions, their specializations and subspecializations, how many nurses and technicians we have and what their professional qualifications are, how many non-medical staff we have and of what qualifications. Therefore, the government lacks the most basic data to have the audacity to talk about healthcare reform. There is no precise data on equipment, nor is the working hours of departments legally defined.

In one statement, the Prime Minister of KS, Elmeedin Konaković, said that it would be “strategically necessary to create a central disease registry that would provide accurate data on the types of diseases affecting the population in KS. This would enable the development of prevention programs for the most common diseases such as gynecological cancers, breast cancer, prostate cancer, colorectal cancer, stomach cancer, and lung cancer. In this direction, healthcare staff should be educated and directed towards specializations in areas that treat the most prevalent diseases. Medical diagnostics need to be improved, where there are long waiting lists. It is necessary to review the essential drug list and completely switch to generic names. For chronic diseases, procure and distribute medications that do not have to be in original expensive packaging, and dispense precisely the amount of medication prescribed by the doctor in bulk, then package them in ordinary bottles, of course, all accompanied by their barcodes.”

The government at the time was of the opinion that funds for capital investments should be stopped as a priority. Finally, it is necessary to define the status of the private sector. So, that's where the money and new quality of service are. Healthcare reform has been reduced to merging two hospitals, with a 2.5-page study, which will lead to the closure and vacating of the building for the entry of the biggest parasites feeding on this country. It is clearly about fulfilling the wishes of one person at any cost. Even at the cost of collective disgrace.