The proposed ordinance on additional work for doctors, presented by Health Minister Irena Hrstić on Friday, stipulates stricter rules for additional work in a private health institution, and a permit will not be available for services for which the waiting time in his department is longer than 150 days.
Clear criteria and a scoring system are being introduced, and a license will be issued to a doctor with at least five years of experience in the field in which he is seeking approval, if in the last three months he has achieved at least average performance at the field level and performance in clinical examinations and diagnostics, stated Hrstić, presenting the draft regulation at the MEDMED conference in Grožnjan, organized by the Association of Health and Medical Journalists of the Croatian Journalists' Association (HND).
"It shouldn't happen that a doctor at the hospital where he works doesn't want to perform ultrasounds, but only highly sophisticated tests, and he can perform those ultrasounds at a private clinic without any problems," said Hrstić.
The permit will be issued for one year.
The health institution will have to monitor the dynamics of changes in the waiting list, which will be the criterion for scoring and issuing permits. The scoring system also foresees that negative points for issuing permits will be given to doctors in management positions and those in scientific and teaching positions.
Given the new criteria, the minister expects that the ordinance will not have much of an impact on the total number of permits issued, but it will affect transparency and proper monitoring of the provision of services in hospitals.
He also expects that transparent criteria will benefit the middle generation of doctors, the so-called credit generation, who have the desire and willingness to work overtime.
The minister also announces quarterly monitoring of the work of doctors who have been issued a license and the time they are absent from work, in order to prevent someone from spending more time in a private institution than in their home institution.
According to data, 1586 doctors are currently working in supplementary work, most of them in Zagreb - 677 doctors, of which 235 are in management positions.
By profession, the most are anesthesiologists (57), radiologists (50), followed by pediatricians (49) and gynecologists (42).
For example, at KBC Zagreb, a total of 180 employees are licensed, including 151 doctors, 49 of whom are in management positions, and 16 nurses. At KBC Sestre milosrdnice, there are 172, 154 doctors, 61 in management positions, and 21 nurses.
The new regulation, according to the announcement, should be submitted for e-consultation by July.
Photo: HINA/
