Minister of Health of Serbia, Prof. Dr. Danica Grujičić announced that the list will be made regarding the entire equipment in health institutions, their age, the need for new devices, as well as the assessment of the repairmen's work, and whether if they’ll be able to repair the device in a short period of time, and that soon will be carried out. At the conference, "Digitalization in the financing of health care" held in Belgrade, Dr. Grujičić pointed out that it is very important that the devices work, that patients do not get annoyed and that examinations and interventions are not delayed because it is not known when the device will be repaired. She announced that in the future the Ministry of Health will defend the interests of patients, not manufacturers. When it comes to the organization of the system, management structures must find appointments for patients in the nearest hospitals or clinical centers if the device fails, the minister added.
Minister at the conference regarding "Digitalization in health care financing"
"The plan is to transfer all the money for the maintenance of the apparatus to the Ministry of Health, so that it directly contracts the maintenance and service of the apparatus and equipment, so that it does not happen that the patient waits for a month or more for a scanner to be repaired, but that everything regarding the maintenance finishes within a few days, and the patient receives the service on time", said the minister. She added that all health centers and hospitals that were separated in local governments will be reunited and work as one institution, and that efforts will be made to replace certain personnel wherever they are missing, so that all areas be covered, and citizens do not have to travel to specialist examinations, but to receive them in their town or city.
At the meeting "Digitalization in health care financing" attended by the directors of secondary and tertiary health care institutions, the Minister of Finance Siniša Mali said: "By introducing centralized public procurement, the goods and materials bookkeeper and the eRecept system, we are bringing order to health care financing, with the aim of knows precisely what every dime we invest is spent on, which shows our responsibility as a state. In this way, we make significant savings, and that money is further returned to healthcare by investing in medicines, equipment, hospitals." He added that the government's goal is to create better working conditions and quality of life for healthcare workers, and emphasized that in this year's budget, total allocations for healthcare increased from 466.3 billion dinars to 490 billion dinars. Director of RFZO prof. Dr. Sanja Radojević Škodrić pointed out that centralization also entailed direct payment, which solved the debts of health institutions in the amount of 4.8 billion dinars, and that this money was given last year for innovative medicines. For the first time in the history of Serbian healthcare, as many as 80 innovative medicines were purchased for that amount.
