The news that should worry us more than the fiery rhetoric of division is that more than a hundred doctors from the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina have requested a discharge from the Medical Chamber in order to go abroad in 2022 alone. There are no exact data for 2023 yet, but one can already sense that the negative trend has continued.
In most cases, the reason for leaving is that doctors no longer see a perspective in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Younger people try to leave immediately after completing their studies, and recently older specialist doctors have also been leaving. By the way, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, doctors are among those who earn the most, if we exclude politicians and officials, but finances are not what drives them.
After realizing that in Europe only six doctors deal with blood vessels in the brain, Adnan Mujanović decided to be the seventh. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, he did not have the opportunity to improve in this field, but in Switzerland he obtained his doctorate with a full scholarship. When he compares the healthcare system of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Switzerland, he says that in our country the biggest flaw is the lack of a strategic work framework.
“We can see that in Switzerland, thanks to the existence of a strategic work framework and various guidelines, the work is much easier – not only for doctors and health personnel, but also for the patients themselves, because everyone involved in this process knows at all times what the next step is that the patient must take” , Mujanović points out.
Adnan left because of restrictions on advancement in the profession, but there are hundreds of young doctors who left because of pressing problems in the country that affect healthcare. Amila Kamberović Nurkanović is among them. After completing medicine at the University of Tuzla, she went to Germany, where she immediately got a job at the department of general psychiatry. The question is when in Bosnia and Herzegovina she would get such an opportunity immediately after completing her studies.
“I think that young colleagues are leaving Bosnia and Herzegovina because of the unstable political situation and because recently it has become very difficult to find a secure job,” she tells Federalna.
One of the reasons for this state of affairs is that the specializations, which should be harmonized with modern trends in medicine, were not planned and implemented in time. Because of this, many doctors left UC Tuzla.
“Certainly because of one large area when our doctors are not referred to specializations and subspecializations in eminent health institutions, both in Europe and in the world”, says prof. Ph.D. Denijal Tulumović, v. d. director of the University College Tuzla.
The problem is also noticeable in health centers. In Sarajevo Canton, they say that the lack of professional staff has become a chronic problem.
“We point out that in the case of specialists, there is a high shortage of staff on the labor market, and that in the previous period, our institution has on several occasions published public advertisements to fill positions for which no one applied”, they state from the Dom zdravlja Canton Sarajevo.
Thus, there is a need for additional work by doctors, as well as an increase in the number of contracts between institutions that are forced to exchange doctors with each other due to a lack of staff. This increases the burden on healthcare workers, and the waiting lists are getting longer. And it could get worse considering that in addition to those who have left – there are a large number of those who are waiting for the opportunity to leave.
“More than 100 doctors from the territory of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2022 alone requested a certificate from the Medical Chamber of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina in order to go to Croatia, Germany and the countries of the Arabian Peninsula. In addition, a certain number of doctors are still actively employed in our country, but have been looking for employment abroad for a long time,” the FBiH Medical Chamber points out.
In the Tuzla Canton, the authorities are trying to prevent the negative trend by employing all doctors who are on the register of unemployed persons. Thus, from January, 106 of them should be distributed in health institutions throughout the canton. Among them is Amer Mulaosmanović, who graduated from the Faculty of Medicine a little over a year ago.
“Like every young doctor, I am happy with this decision because I will gain some experience and I will be able to stay in my canton and my town,” he emphasizes.
However, doctors need not only a job, but also the possibility of advancement in the profession. It is already clear that one of the problems that caused many to leave is the lack of specialization in planning, which is an indication to the authorities in which direction they should act. The time to ensure sustainability and quality in healthcare – which is the mirror of a country – is slowly running out.
