The meeting at the Medical Chamber of Slovenia was attended also by the management of the UKC Maribor, the anaesthesiology professional forum, and representatives of the Ministry of Health.

The seriousness of the situation was established, but also the fact that the problem could be solved, said the Chairman of the Chamber Andrej Možina after the meeting. Sandra Tušar, the representative of the Ministry of Health, confirmed his words.

She explained the first measures to be taken. The Ministry intends to appeal to the managements of hospitals to give their assent to anaesthesiologists who would wish to help to UKC Maribor. According to the director of the UKC Maribor Gregor Pivec the appeal will be sent already on Friday. As the second measure, the Ministry intends to issue an invitation to tender for import of specialist anaesthesiology doctors. The results will be checked a month later.

Due to shortage of anaesthesiologists, and sudden departures at the beginning of this month, certain surgeries had to be cancelled. There are only 20 anaesthesiologists left at the UKC Maribor, while 48 would be needed, Helena Lovrinčič reported for Radio Slovenia. Therefore doctors from other hospitals are helping at the moment, and trainee specialists are being included; consequently the safety of patients could be compromised.

There are many facets to the critical situation within the Maribor anaesthesiology. The employees claim that the situation is the consequence of the actions of director Pivec, demanding positive results for a number of years in a row, even at the expense of personnel. Pivec's report requested by the Minister of Health shows that deficiency of anaesthesiologists in northeast Slovenia has been present for years. The number of anaesthesiologists at Ptuj is three times lower than average, and in Maribor lower by half compared to Ljubljana.

During eleven years the Medical Chamber has approved less than 40% of requests, while there are no anaesthesiologists at the labour market. Most of them work in shifts, as no consensus has been given for on-call duty, which is making the organisation of the work even more difficult. The 20% bonus for increased workload is being rejected by most, as it is not considered adequate.

B. V., Al. Ma.; Translated by G. K.