Workplace burnout overshadows even (non)construction of hospitals – 2024 Retrospective, investments in HEALTHCARE

Despite the fact that a considerable number of investments in healthcare were announced last year (which are so far still only in the announcements phase) the topic of “workplace burnout” captured the attention of our readers the most. The huge number of people who read the article in which we “dissected” the burnout syndrome, which Serbia still does not recognize as a diagnosis, best demonstrated what the main health problem of employees in the country is, which we simply cannot ignore. It also indicated that this is a topic that employers should seriously address as soon as possible.

All in all, the list of the most read articles from the healthcare sector on our eKapija portal is quite in line with the popular saying – “Live, horse, and you’ll get grass,” but let's look at it in order...

We are sick from work, but we don’t have a diagnosis - Although it is among the top European countries in terms of the “burnout” syndrome in the workplace, Serbia still does not recognize “burnout”.

Although the World Health Organization announced the introduction of this syndrome into the International Classification of Diseases in mid-2019, with a recommendation that it be implemented in WHO member states from January 2022, this has unfortunately not happened in our country yet.

As eKapija learned from the Ministry of Health, the reason why the burnout syndrome at work has not yet been included in the official codebook in our country is that we are waiting for the profession to comment on it.

Which is discouraging, if we take into account the research of Dr. Wilmar Schaufeli, a professor at Utrecht University in the Netherlands and Leuven University in Belgium, which showed that Serbia is among the top European countries in terms of the frequency of this syndrome. Only Turks and Slovenians burn out more at work than us.

Immediately after burnout, the articles about the construction of new hospitals were the most read ones, which, if it even needs to be emphasized, shows that people, to put it simply, have nowhere to receive treatment and practically pine for new and better equipped health institutions.

What interested our readers the most was the project of the new General Hospital in Sabac. The construction of the new hospital was announced back in 2022, in an entirely new location, and in January last year, the Detailed Regulation Plan of the new hospital was put up for public review.

The new hospital complex is planned on nearly 80,000 m2 with blocks for surgical medicine, internal medicine, an outpatient hospital with a polyclinic-outpatient department, psychiatry and infectious disease blocks, with a total of 600 beds.

As announced earlier, EUR 50 million is set aside for construction and equipping.

The next project that has attracted a lot of attention is the plan for a new hospital in Bor, in the area between the Health Center and the New City Center.

It was originally announced that the complex with at least 340 beds, 18 departments including oncology and toxicology, 8 operating rooms and two delivery rooms, would also have a heliport, but this was later abandoned.

The first tender for the design was announced in March, and a second one in the summer because the previous one was canceled.

The final version of the project for the new Bor hospital, according to the latest information from October, is expected by the middle of this year, and for now it is known that a facility of about 20,000 m2 will be built.

New healthcare capacities were announced for early 2024 in Sombor as well. This is the extension of the new wing of the General Hospital “Dr Radivoj Simonovic” in Sombor, which was announced back in 2019, but was postponed by the coronavirus pandemic. As reported by Dnevnik, the construction of six operating rooms and a surgical polyclinic with offices was planned to begin last year.

Fifth place belongs to the news about raising the level of spa resorts in Serbia - the announcement that the Rehabilitation Center in Sijarinska Banja will soon expand its capacities and completely change its appearance.

- The project documentation is currently being prepared for a detailed and thorough renovation of the Special Hospital itself and all facilities owned by the Special Hospital. In short, Sijarinska Banja should get a completely new look in the near future - said Nebojsa Arsic, director of RHC Gejzer, in May.

Then, in July, the mayor of Medvedja, Dragan Kulic, announced that the reconstruction of the Special Rehabilitation Hospital in Sijarinska Banja would begin next year, i.e. this year, emphasizing that “the appearance of Sijarinska Banja will completely change in the next three to four years.” Specifically, the reconstruction and adaptation of the Gejzer Special Rehabilitation Hospital facility is planned, which will include the complete reconstruction of Gejzer with outdoor pools, a restaurant, an outdoor seating area and a newly designed walkway from the Special Hospital facility to the outdoor pools, across the road, as well as external landscaping with the defining of roads, pedestrian paths and free green spaces, as reported by infocentarjug.rs.

A nice, innovative piece of news from May took the 6th position on our list - doctors and engineers from Nis have designed an instrument that accelerates and improves the effectiveness of surgeries and are negotiating with foreign companies about production.

The startup LigaSurg is the winner of the first Nis Launcher accelerator program, and they are already negotiating with several foreign companies about production.

One of the team members, abdominal surgeon Ilija Golubovic, says that they came up with the idea for this instrument after many years of doing operations that last several hours.

- Our instrument offers great possibilities in everyday operations performed by general, abdominal and thoracic surgeons, as well as gynecologists, enabling a significant reduction in the duration of interventions with a manifold improvement in performance compared to the existing instruments currently used - explained Golubovic, as reported by Juzne vesti.

The seemingly “endless” announcement of the construction of the Tirsova 2 Children's Hospital placed seventh, and in May the construction price increased.

The Ministry of Public Investments announced the decision to award the contract for the construction of the Tirsova 2 University Children's Clinic to a group of bidders that was the only one to respond to the previous tender, and the value of the awarded contract is EUR 141 million including the VAT (16.6 billion dinars).

The consortium of companies SMB Gradnja, W.D. Concord West, Telegroup, MPP Jedinstvo ad Sevojno, A.R.J Technology, DBS, Elektrozapad, Ipon Sistem, Premer Savkovic and PP Inzenjering Stojanovic was selected in a competitive procedure with negotiation.

The estimated value of this tender was 11.2 billion dinars (about EUR 95 million) excluding the VAT, and the consortium requested EUR 128 million excluding the VAT (or EUR 153.6 million including the VAT) in the open public procurement procedure.

Their offer formally met the tender conditions, but was assessed as unacceptable precisely because of the offered price. During the negotiation process, the bidder lowered the price, so their final offer - which was accepted - is EUR 118 million excluding the VAT, or EUR 141.6 million including the VAT.

The contractors have a three-year deadline to complete the construction. The gross area of the new University Children's Clinic building is 61,923.98 m², and the number of floors is 3B+2SB+G+5. The number of patient beds is 167-230 and 71 beds within the daily hospital, and 528 parking spaces are also planned.

As a reminder, the construction of a new clinic building in Tirsova Street has been actively announced since 2017, when the then Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic announced the reconstruction of the University Children's Clinic in Tirsova Street and the construction of a second hospital, Tirsova 2.

Interesting news at the 8th position on the list - a company from Knic produces special vehicle superstructures that have conquered the whole of Europe, and among the products of the Ema company are mobile pharmacies and hospitals on wheels, which is why this article was among the most read in the field of healthcare.

Sales Director Bozidar Djurdjevic said that mobile hospitals, pharmacies, mammograms and CT scanners were some of their most popular products.

The penultimate place is occupied by the information that the construction of the GAK Narodni front in Bezanijska kosa will cost EUR 120 million, and readers were also interested in what this new Gynecology and Obstetrics Clinic will look like.

Minister of Health Zlatibor Loncar stated this summer that the necessary permits for the construction of the new building of Narodni front in Bezanijska kosa were in the process of being obtained.

- We expect that in the next nine to ten months all permits will be obtained and that the tender documentation will be completed, that is, all necessary procedures will be carried out, a contractor will be obtained and the works will begin - said Loncar, adding that the facility would have more than 55,000 square meters and “will be state-of-the-art.”

Ending our list is last year’s news that the phase-based construction of the BIO4 Campus complex in Belgrade is planned, and eKapija learned this from the draft Spatial Plan of the Special Purpose Area for this facility.

Phase A includes a scientific and research campus with complementary facilities between Vojvode Stepe Street, Peka Dapcevica Boulevard and the Kumodraz 1 neighborhood, while Phase B includes the existing complex of the Faculty of Pharmacy and the complex of the Institute for Virology, Vaccines and Serums Torlak.

The complex, planned as a scientific and research campus with an area of about 26 ha, includes four units in which contents from biomedicine, biotechnology, bioinformatics and biodiversity will be represented.

The tender for the construction of the BIO4 Campus complex for a total of nine institutes, two faculties and the Minglarium building was announced at the end of 2024 for January 15, but has not yet been announced.