Tourist clinics in Izola and Lucija typically receive more patients in need of treatment during summertime.

Ear infections, throat ache, stomach ache, allergies and injuries that occur during various sports activities, including swimming, are the most common reason for patients to visit the clinic in Lucija. It is open to local, Slovenian as well as foreign patients, mostly for single treatments.

Paediatricians from the Izola health centre have also started offering assistance in the tourist clinic this year.

During the summer months doctors pay special attention to the elderly, who have a weakened perception of thirst and may become dehydrated by forgetting to drink, warns Ljubica Kolander Bizjak, a GP from the Koper health centre.

Swimming is beneficial to one’s health, but the elderly have less elastic veins, which do not adapt to changes in temperature, from warm to cold and vice versa, that well, which is why they should avoid the sun between 11am and 5pm. Instead, they should go for a swim in the morning, emphasizes Kolander Bizjak.

Vesna Potočar Godnič, Radio Koper; translated by K. Z.