In the Zenica Cantonal Hospital, the start of operation of the linear accelerator at the Department of Oncology and Radiotherapy was made official today. The device worth 5.5 million BAM was purchased with funds allocated by the Government of the Federation of BiH for financial consolidation in this hospital. By the way, radiotherapy services are currently provided for patients from the area of three cantons.
The second radiotherapy machine at the Oncology and Radiotherapy Department of the Zenica Hospital will provide a significantly better service.
“With this investment, the Zenica Cantonal Hospital will provide the same high-quality radiotherapy treatment as other clinical centers, which is the ultimate goal on the way to acquiring the status of a university clinical center,” emphasizes dr. Tarik Zulović, director of the Zenica Cantonal Hospital.
The number of cancer patients, unfortunately, is increasing every day. In addition to patients from Central Bosnia, patients from Tuzla Canton have been treated here for several months.
“If I say that our machine works for 45 patients a day, then that is something to be respected – the machine did not stop for a single moment. We have to be very careful with sophisticated equipment so as not to overload the device. We will have space for another 25 patients”, states the prim. Ph.D. Alma Mekić-Abazović, Head of the Department of Oncology and Radiotherapy.
The Government of the Federation previously allocated 23 million marks for the Zenica hospital for financial consolidation, while the Government of the ZDK planned for this year about nine million marks for similar projects.
“We expect in the spring of 2024 that we will have construction works for all projects that are important for expanding the capacity of the Zenica Cantonal Hospital”, said ZDK Prime Minister Amra Mehmedić.
In addition to making it easier for the patients with the new radiotherapy machine, it will also make the work of the staff easier. The quality of services will be higher, but it is still necessary to strengthen personnel, which the hospital management has been working on for some time.