Private MD Medicina to help cut hospital waiting times

8. avgust 2017 ob 11.20 • Ljubljana - MMC RTV SLO

The Ministry of Health has offered the performing of knee, hip, back and foot surgeries, to the private MD Medicina centre. Photo: Radio Koper

In order to speed up the process of shortening the unacceptably long waiting times in Slovenia’s hospitals, the Ministry of Health has decided to include another private medical centre in the program - MD Medicina.

The Ministry of Health has offered the performing of knee, hip, back and foot surgeries, to the private MD Medicina centre. The formal procedure for awarding the concession is not yet complete. The head of the centre, Matevž Gorenšek, says the centre could perform up to 400 additional surgeries until the end of the year. They therefore invite all those patients who have been waiting for an appointment for longer than what is allowed.
The MD Medicina Sanatorium Ljubljana centre, which otherwise privately performs all those operations: knee arthroscopy, hip and knee endoprosthesis, back and foot surgeries, applied to be a part of the program even last year but was not included.

This year the ministry has invited them to take part, as patients have to wait for the above-mentioned surgeries for an unacceptably long period - more than a year.

"As I understand from the ministry, the program is intended for those patients waiting for longer than what is allowed. Once we receive the decision for the awarding of the program, patients will be able to make an appointment within a week, and then undergo surgery immediately after," said the head of the centre Mr. Gorenšek.
"We work according to the ministry’s instructions, and the ministry’s wish is to shorten the waiting times. The ministry is to call on the heads of Slovenia’s hospitals to inform their patients about this possibility," said Gorenšek about accepting new patients from other hospitals.
After being examined patients will have five days to decide and transfer their referrals. "We also have a lot of our own patients waiting for a surgery and we would first start with them. Regarding the others, they will still have the possibility to undergo surgery sooner than otherwise," says Gorenšek.
The surgeries at the centre are carried out by two full-time employed surgeons, and another 17 surgeons working through part-time contracts – mostly doctors from the Ljubljana UKC. The ministry is expected to give more details about the agreement and about which patients from the waiting lists will be able to transfer their referrals.

Helena Lovinčič, Radio Slovenija; translated by K. J.