Radović to gather information and obtain a statement from Bulatović, Photo: Luka Zekovic
Director of the Clinical Center of Montenegro (KCCG) Aleksandar Radovic should review the situation at the Clinic for Orthopedics and Traumatology, collect information and request a statement from the director of the Clinic for Orthopedics Nikola Bulatović in connection with the allegations of nine doctors who are against his appointment.
This is the conclusion of the majority of the members of the Board of Directors (BoD) of the largest health institution from yesterday’s session, which was attended by the director and orthopedists dissatisfied with the appointment of Bulatović.
Sources who attended the session claim that the atmosphere was lively, but tolerant, and that the orthopedists indicated that, if their issue is not resolved, they will leave KCCG.
They pointed out that they informed the Minister of Health about the problem Vojislav Šimunbut also the prime minister Milojko Spajić. At the session, part of the orthopedists made claims that Bulatović allegedly threatened them after the public publication of the letter.
“Vijesti” announced two days ago that KCCG revoked the consent for supplementary work of nine orthopedists to work outside that institution for a period of half a year. This was done after the doctors, dissatisfied with the appointment of Bulatović as director of the Clinic for Orthopedics and Traumatology, refused to work supplementary work at the parent institution – KCCG.
While doctors claim in a statement to “Vijesti” that they perceive the move of the KCCG administration as a repressive measure, which will make the population in the north and south of the country suffer, the institution says that they are only following the regulations and that this measure will not endanger patients.
Namely, they remind that it is the legal obligation of the director of the institution to invalidate the approvals for additional work, among other things, because they implemented only five to ten percent of the services provided for reducing the waiting list.
9 out of 12 orthopedists are against the appointment of Nikola Bulatović for the Clinics for Orthopedics and Traumatology
Orthopedists claim that the functioning of the health system will be seriously threatened due to what they consider to be revanchism. Protesting against the appointment of Bulatović as director, orthopedists Aleksandar Jušković – former head of the clinic, Vladan Ćipović, Marko Borovinić, Ivan Vlahovic, Mile Goločevac, Aleksandar Petričić, Oleg Lakovic, Miodrag Vujadinović and Igor Mandicpreviously announced a possible suspension of work.
Nine out of 12 orthopedists oppose the appointment of Bulatović, while three have not expressed their opinion.
“We received a decision prohibiting us from additional work, both in private and public health institutions, and we perceive it as a repressive measure. The fact that this ban also applies to the Kolašin Health Center, as well as to the Clinical Hospital Center in Berane and the General Hospital in Bar is of particular concern. There is no doubt that such a decision will have a negative impact on the availability of health services to citizens, but also on the possibility of providing assistance to other general hospitals that are facing a shortage of staff. Such an approach is a serious jeopardizing the availability of health care and has a direct impact on citizens for whom timely examinations, operations and faster treatment are of crucial importance,” said one of the orthopedists whose consent for additional work was revoked.
KCCG, however, said that the doctors whose permits for additional work were revoked, and who opposed the appointment of the acting director of the Clinic, realized only five to ten percent of the services provided for reducing waiting lists in other public health institutions.
They state that most of the work in other public institutions was performed by two doctors whose licenses were not revoked, and that the Clinic with 13 specialists does not use its capacities optimally due to working in only one shift, which is why it was decided to change the work organization.
The Kolašin Health Center, where four KCCG orthopedists practice, announced that the cancellation of consent for additional work for doctors would have a negative impact on patients from the territory of the Kolašin municipality, as well as on the entire health system. They explained that the four doctors whose consent for additional work has now been revoked treat between 90 and 100 patients a month in that municipality, which does not normally have an orthopedist.
In a letter to the media from ten days ago, nine doctors claimed that the KCCG administration did not officially respond to their letter dated May 28, in which they informed the public that they would stop working if Bulatović was appointed director. They previously accused Bulatović of addressing doctors in an insulting and humiliating manner, limiting their professional autonomy, and denying them the possibility of professional training.
There are 759 patients on the waiting list for operations at the Orthopedic Clinic. The problem with huge waiting lists for the installation of hip and knee prostheses has been going on for a long time, and the management of KCCG explained it as a lack of operating theaters and overworked staff with emergency situations, ie traumatology. That is why it was decided that KCCG orthopedists perform part of the operations on patients at the Clinical Hospital Center in Berane, which has adequate spatial capacities. However, as it was announced a few months ago at the session of the Parliament of Montenegro, there were no operations in Berane from August 15 of last year to February 1 of this year.
Minister of Health Vojislav Šimun then he confirmed that he got involved in solving that problem and that the interventions are being done in the operating room in Berane.
However, from Šimun’s department, commenting on the situation at the KCCG Orthopedic Clinic and the fact that Radović withdrew the consent of doctors for supplementary work outside the home institution, they did not precisely answer how work will be organized in the north of the country.
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