An Overview of Human Resources and Capacity in Health Care Institutions in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Context of Responding to the COVID 19 Pandemic

Abstract

Background: The organization of health care system on Cantonal level with the coordination from Federal level represents a real situation with the possibility of decentralization of health care system according to the experiences of developed countries. Objective. To make an overview of the situation at the primary and hospital health care level with the aim of assessing the existing human resources and capacity of health care institutions in FB&H, with which we entered in COVID-19 pandemic. Methods. This retrospective study presents the efficiency of health care in FB&H measured by number of medical doctors, and other medical staff during the time period of five years. Data of the Institute for Public Health FB&H were used. The Institute for Public Health FB&H is authorised by the law to conduct and implement statistical research in the field of health care in line with relevant laws and by-laws. The Institute is obliged to report on organisational structure, human resources and medical equipment. Results. Presented data include the number of health care employees in medical institutions in FB&H in the period 2015-2019 per 100,000 inhabitants and their numbers in primary health care, family medicine, secondary and tertiary level of health care in 2019. The study also presents the number of doctors of medicine, specialists and medical residents in FB&H, the number of nurses of all profiles and levels of education as well as medical staff and other employees in the public health care system in FB&H in 2019. Conclusions. The COVID-19 pandemic in FB&H has confirmed the fact that human resources in health care are insufficient, especially in the field of public health and epidemiology. The availability of these health facilities and human resource is not uniform throughout the FB&H, which may affect the capacity of the health system in some parts of the FB&H to meet the needs of providing services during COVID-19 pandemic.

How Well Did the Healthcare System Respond to the Healthcare Needs of Older People with and without Dementia during the COVID-19 Pandemic? The Perception of Healthcare Providers and Older People from the SI4CARE Project in the ADRION Region

“…This could also be a result of the organization of the healthcare system in BiH, a significant proportion of which is decentralized and distributed to ten cantonal ministries of health, resulting in significant friction when urgent adjustments need to be made. Furthermore, no official guidelines and procedures are available further enhancing the perceived difficulties that were reported for the response of the healthcare system to the caregivers during the COVID-19 pandemic [22].…”

OVID-19 in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina: Strengthening the public health surveillance using a web-based system to inform public health response, March 2020 - March 2022

“…As a middle-income country, maintaining nonpharmaceutical interventions (NPIs), such as masking mandates and social distancing measures, were key to ensuring that health systems were not overburdened [12][13][14]. In FBiH, after the initial implementation of NPIs during the winter and spring months of 2020, the Rt was below 1, which kept the level of transmission of COVID-19 low and allowed time to increase the health system response capacity [15,16]; a new increase in cases was seen after the relaxation of NPIs and the re-opening of country borders. Early NPIs were implemented in both BiH entities [13].…”

Dental Recordkeeping: Practice in Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina

“…According to official data of the FB&H Institute for Public Health, a piloting sample includes 10% of doctors of dental medicine from the FB&H, registered in the health statistics yearbook ( 11 ). Examinees filled out an online questionnaire, which was based on a questionnaire previously developed by Cilović-Lagarija et al ( 13 ).…”

“…Health institutions and private practitioners as well as other legal and natural persons, who provide health care within their businesses, are obliged to keep records according to the Law on Record-Keeping in Health Care System (Official Gazette of FB&H, 37/12), and regulations made based on this Law, including the Law on Health Care (Official Gazette of FB&H, 46/10 and 75/13). According to the aforementioned laws and by-laws, dental offices are obliged to keep dental records, patients’ protocols, individual reports on infectious diseases, and aggregate reporting forms ( 11 , 12 ).…”