Novalja invested €85,000 in the training of a paediatrician, but shortly after completing her specialisation, the doctor moved to Zagreb. This left children on Pag without a paediatrician, and local authorities are now seeking a way to attract a new specialist.
The doctor's departure was facilitated by a change in legal rules, under which doctors no longer pay high financial penalties if they leave the institution that funded their training after completing their specialisation. The institution that funded the training was the Dom zdravlja Ličko-senjske županije (Lika-Senj County Health Centre), meaning the invested money could not be recovered through contractual obligation.
Novalja is attempting to attract a new paediatrician with a bonus of €2,000 net per month. Novalja will pay half of the bonus, while the other half will be covered by the City of Pag, which faces the same problem of a lack of paediatricians. The total monthly cost of the bonus will be approximately €3,400.
Novalja initially paid to secure a paediatrician, and now, together with Pag, it must pay extra to attract one. The situation highlights how difficult it is to ensure specialist healthcare in smaller communities, where a lack of staff becomes a permanent challenge.
Similar problems are not limited to Pag. Dubrovnik, for example, offers accommodation, but has no paediatrician. At the same time, everyone wants to be a dermatologist, indicating that doctors' interests in certain specialisations do not align with the needs of local communities.
Irena Hrstić highlighted that the health centre can send a doctor without a specialisation to undertake a specialisation for its own needs after one year of work, thereby encouraging the creation of its own staff. Such a model could help solve the problem in the long term, but for Novalja and Pag, the immediate solution remains a financial bonus in the hope of attracting a paediatrician.
