Within the next five years the staff of the University Clinical Centre Maribor will increase by more than 300 new employees; most of them physicians - 120.
They need additional personnel almost in all the fields. The worst situation remains in the field of anaesthesiology, while it seems that the management of the hospital will succeed in preventing the four urologists from leaving the hospital, Radio Slovenija reported.
The management of the hospital is still negotiating with the four urologists who gave their notices in the end of the last year because of their dissatisfaction with the head of the department, who was, among other things, accused of mobbing. The acting director of the hospital Janez Lavre explained: "At least three of the urologists will remain, and we will see what the future will bring. Most certainly the replacement of the head of the department should be considered."
Replacement of the head of the Urology Department in the air
And how soon will Dejan Bratuša, whose mandate will end in one year and a half, will be forced to step down? "I am not able to give you an answer to that question at this moment," was Lavre's answer.
He was not able to say whether Bratuša will continue working in the hospital after his replacement. During the last five years, 30 specialised physicians left the Maribor University Medical Centre – according to the Fides union representative Boris Rižnar, among the reasons for that were also strained relations. But, besides that, "they realised the conditions in other hospitals were better, the work conditions were better, and the equipment was better than what we have here."
The management is thus facing a difficult task – to stop the physicians from leaving, especially the young ones who are tempted to go abroad, and to lure new, sorely needed staff. "We would need to employ approximately 120 specialized physicians, 80 graduated nurses, and 100 medical technicians," Lavre explained.
In spite of the problems due to lack of personnel, last year the Maribor University Medical Centre managed to complete their set programme. By extending the operative programme in the fields of abdominal surgery and traumatology by four hours per day, into the afternoons, they managed to substantial shorten the waiting times for non-urgent surgeries.