Long waiting lists for specialist examinations and diagnostics, in addition to the disease itself, are the biggest problem for oncology patients at the Cantonal Hospital Zenica. While the number of patients increases, the capacities remain the same, insufficient. They wait for regular check-ups for months.
“Instead of three months, I waited seven months for a check-up. Then the oncologist tells me, you must have a check-up every three months. I know that…,” says Dijana Bozic-Srdanovic, an oncology patient.
This is only part of the daily struggle of oncology patients from the Zenica-Doboj Canton (ZDC). Dijana is one of them.
“The staff is accommodating, but they have limits. The patient suffers simply because they wait for hours, because they have nowhere to sit or cannot, because that day there is no pharmacist, and they cannot receive therapy on time,” says Dijana.
The Oncology Department of the Cantonal Hospital Zenica is one of the most burdened departments. Although the construction of a new Oncology unit has been announced, the road to a solution is long, and the problems are many.
Just for an MRI examination, patients point out, they wait 15 months, and it is the basic examination for diagnosing cancer. If they go privately for an examination, they must pay. Patients blame the Health Insurance Institute of the ZDC for this.
“We receive answers to our questions from Tuzla and Sarajevo within 24 hours, but here we cannot get them in 240 days. Tuzla and Sarajevo have included all private capacities in their region, without expanding further outside the canton for these needs, and according to their statement, they have no waiting lists for MRI,” emphasizes Boris Crljenica, president of the Association of Oncology Patients ‘SNOP’ Zenica.
Because of the situation in this sector, the previous director of the Institute was dismissed. On the other hand, from the Cantonal Hospital Zenica, they state that they are doing what they can, introducing additional shifts, making changes permitted by the available space.
“We are currently in the process of procuring new chairs for receiving chemotherapy and expanding the existing capacity we have in the space we currently have available,” says Rasim Iriskic, assistant director for medical affairs of the Cantonal Hospital Zenica.
Experts raise the question: if this continues, who will be left to treat patients?
“You must hire someone at least ten years earlier in order to ‘adequately’ replace a doctor who is going into retirement,” emphasizes Tarik Kapidzic, president of the Medical Chamber of ZDC.
In recent years, according to available data, the number of cancer patients has increased by as much as 30 percent. We remind you, citizens of this canton still have to physically come and validate their health insurance booklets every month, even those who, as we see, are fighting a tumor.
