”Two weeks ago, with the first uniportal VATS lung biopsy operation, Tesanj General Hospital entered the thoracic surgery program, which they plan to develop in the future in the interest of citizens and patients of that city and Zenica-Doboj Canton(ZDC), ” told the hospital director mr. sc. med. Omer Bedak.
He mentioned that the first operation was successfully performed by Tesanj specialist in general surgery and subspecialist in thoracic surgery Emin Brkic (43 years old), under the mentorship of prof. dr. sc. med. Goran Krdzalic, a specialist in general surgery and a subspecialist in thoracic surgery, who recently returned to Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) from Saudi Arabia.
Cantonal Center for Lung Diseases
According to Bedak, Professor Krdzalic was once the head of Thoracic Surgery at the Clinical Center of the University of Tuzla. For now, the Tesanj hospital has hired him for only one–fifth of his working hours, ie one day a week.
”At the moment, we do not have the opportunity to hire Professor Krdzalic full-time, but we are doing everything to create the preconditions for his full engagement. It is a great honor for us that such an expert decided to be part of our surgical team. At our institution, thoracosurgical operations of the secondary level are currently being performed: uniportal VATS biopsies, pleurodesis, pneumothorax, exploratory thoracotomies…
We hope that he, with the support of higher levels, and I mean the Ministry of Health ZDC and the Institute of Health Insurance of ZDC (ZZOZDC), will begin to work thoracosurgical surgery of the tertiary level, or lung cancer. That would bring greater comfort for the patient and financial savings of ZZOZDC,”Bedak underlines.
The thoracosurgical operative program of the secondary level, considering that the Department of Pumological Diseases of the Tesanj Hospital is the Cantonal Center for Lung Diseases, is very important for the Tesanj General Hospital.
”We would not be able to perform these operations without the support and assistance of the Minister of Health of ZDC Adnan Jupic and the director of ZZOZDCOmer Skaljo,” Bedak notes.
Facilitated access to the service
Dr. Emin Brkic pointed out that some thoracic surgeries began to be performed even before the coronavirus pandemic, which significantly slowed them down in the development of this branch of surgery, which is currently only performed at ZDC at Tesanj General Hospital.
”Previous surgical procedures of this type for our patients were performed in health institutions of other cantons. We could not do them in our institution. But, now that has also changed, so in this way, patients will have easier access to the service without the additional paperwork needed for treatment outside the canton,” Brkic emphasized.
