50 million kuna from the European fund for the improvement of day hospitals and surgeries at Rijeka Clinical Hospital Center

A project for the reconstruction and equipping of day hospitals and surgeries at the Clinical Hospital Center (KBC) Rijeka has been approved for 49.8 million kuna in non-repayable funds from the European Regional Development Fund, and it is expected that the project will be completed by mid-2019, it was stated on Tuesday during the presentation of the project.

The goal is to increase capacities, improve access to day hospitals and surgeries of individual clinics and institutes, and enhance medical services, while reducing the number of admissions to acute hospital departments by 10 percent.

The project, which is almost entirely financed, specifically 99.93 percent, from the European Regional Development Fund, includes the reconstruction and adaptation of existing spaces, the purchase of equipment, and the optimization of hospital processes.

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The director of KBC, Davor Štimac, stated that patients no longer want to stay in the hospital for days if it is not necessary, and that they are processed much faster in day hospitals, which leads to rationalization, or a smaller number of patients in the hospital.

In the day hospitals of Rijeka KBC, about 7,000 patients are processed monthly, which amounts to about 85,000 patients annually, and after the renovation of the space, that number could exceed one hundred thousand patients. On the other hand, nearly 1.5 million patients pass through the outpatient clinics of the Rijeka hospital annually.

Achieving European standards

Treatment in the hospital currently lasts an average of six days, and Štimac hopes that with the development of day hospitals, the European standard of five days will be achieved, which should also enable financial savings as patients who stay in day hospitals are 10 to 20 percent cheaper for the system.

So far, according to Štimac, works have been completed at the Institute of Gastroenterology, clinics for gynecology and obstetrics, neurology, and pediatrics, as well as at the Institute of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, while works are still ongoing at the clinics for surgery, psychiatry, and urology, as well as at the Institute of Pulmonology.

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The deputy director and project manager Nives Jonjić stated that the entire project will be completed by June 2019, and that of the total 49.8 million kuna, about 27 million will be spent on equipment, and about 20 million on the reconstruction of the space.

Recently, one of the public procurement procedures for medical equipment worth 16.6 million kuna was conducted, of which equipment worth about five million kuna has been delivered so far. Non-medical equipment, which includes various furniture, has been contracted so far for a value of 1.5 million kuna. Štimac responded to journalists that new doctors will not be hired due to the reconstruction of day hospitals.

Journalists were also interested in whether nurses are leaving the Rijeka hospital given that competitions for that profession are constantly being announced, and Štimac explained that they are “a fairly fluctuating group in terms of staffing.” Nurses come and go, many return to the hospital, which is a normal dynamic, concluded Štimac.