Slovenia Facing Shortage of Doctors and Nurses
Slovenia lacks trained doctors and nurses with Klinicni center, Ljubljana's central hospital, assessing that retirements will force the institution to look for 230 doctors by 2015. The Health Ministry has meanwhile said that the NE regions of Stajersko and Prekmurje are facing an shortage of family doctors.
Aleksandra Markovic, the medical director at Klinicni center, said that the age structure of surgeons and especially specialised surgeons at the institution is far from ideal.
When the hospital was opened, some three or four generations of graduates were employed and these people will slowly start retiring, she said.
Apart from retirements, the increased scope of activities at the hospital means that the institution would need an additional 100 doctors to carry out the activities in their current scope.
Markovic added that Slovenia has one of the lowest ratios of doctors per 1000 inhabitants in Europe. While the number stands at 2.2 in Slovenia, the European average stands at between 3.3 and 3.5 doctors, she said.
Translated into absolute numbers, some 2,600 additional doctors are needed in Slovenia, a country of 2 million.
Furthermore, while medical institutions would require at least 450 doctors per year, only 190 graduate from medical faculties.
She believes that a rise in the number of enrolled students at the Ljubljana and Maribor faculties will help relieve the situation in some 10 years with 2,500 doctors expected to graduate in the period.
Other EU countries also face a lack of doctors, also because of the EU directive on working hours which limited the working time of doctors in the EU to 40 hours plus additional 8 hours per week.
Meanwhile, the Health and Social Services Trade Union said that some 14,000 people are employed in nursing in Slovenia.
Klinicni center alone employs some 7,000 workers, among them 1,232 doctors, 910 senior and 2,016 junior nurses.
According to 2005 calculations, the institution would require additional 1,089 senior and 1,301 junior nurses.
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