The ministry assured that the preparation for the institute's work had begun intensively, the premises within the Ljubljana UMC were selected, and equipment has been set up. Discussions with domestic and foreign surgeons working in the centre are ongoing, as are arrangements with foreign centres on providing professional support. Photo: Pixabay Foto:
The ministry assured that the preparation for the institute's work had begun intensively, the premises within the Ljubljana UMC were selected, and equipment has been set up. Discussions with domestic and foreign surgeons working in the centre are ongoing, as are arrangements with foreign centres on providing professional support. Photo: Pixabay Foto:

Tomaž Podnar, Samo Vesel and Stevan Bajič are leaving children's cardiology. It has been one of the most difficult decisions in their past professional lives, they wrote. A system that offers the presence of a cardiac surgeon for only two operational days per month is dangerous. According to their opinion, assurances to the public that urgent patients would be treated within 24 hours are not correct, as it has already been shown too often so far that this is hardly feasible in practice.

This is why the surgeons have decided to quit children's cardiology, leaving only one specialist in paediatrics, but her contract will also expire in a month. In order to prevent the almost inevitable breakdown of child's cardiology, the Ljubljana University Medical Centre (UMC) is looking for solutions at home and abroad.

Prime Minister Miro Cerar stressed in his response to recent developments in children's cardiac surgery that he has assurances that children who are being treated there are safe, and that together with the Ministry of Health the Ljubljana UMC is intensively seeking solutions. Until they are found, Cerar deems it most important that "the parents can be completely calm at this moment, and the children are safe".ccording to Cerar, children's safety is assured by the fact that doctors who will carry out all operations in a certain order are provided and scheduled for. "There will be no delays in operations, and the matters are in safe hands. Resignation deadlines take some time," he said.

According to Cerar, children's safety is assured by the fact that doctors who will carry out all operations in a certain order are provided and scheduled for. "There will be no delays in operations, and the matters are in safe hands. Resignation deadlines take some time," he said.

National Institute for Paediatric Cardiovascular Diseases
The Ministry of Health, however, sees the solution in the independent National Institute for Paediatric Cardiovascular Disease, which the ministry predicts will begin operations on 1 July. At first, the ministry predicted that the institute would be operational by 1 May.

The ministry assured that the preparation for the institute's work had begun intensively, the premises within the Ljubljana UMC were selected, and equipment has been set up. Discussions with domestic and foreign surgeons working in the centre are ongoing, as are arrangements with foreign centres on providing professional support.