The Centre of Excellence and Education of the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) was formally opened on Wednesday at the Dubrava clinical hospital in Zagreb in a ceremony attended by President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic and the head of the IDF, Nam Cho.

The IDF is an umbrella organisation which brings together more than 230 national diabetes associations operating in 170 countries and territories around the world.

There are 286,000 people suffering from diabetes in Croatia, although estimates say some 450,000 may be at risk of this disease, out of the total population of little over 4 million.

Around 20 percent of the entire budget of the state health care fund (HZZO) is spent on treating diabetes patients, and the vast majority of that funding, estimated at 88 percent, is used for treating complications that result from belated diagnoses.

At the ceremony, President Grabar-Kitarovic said that preserving good health and disease prevention were responsibilities that laid not only with individuals but with the whole society.

IDF’s centres of excellence are part of the organisation’s collaborative network which aims to coordinate and conduct quality education for health care professionals involved in treating diabetes. Eight European institutions have received this recognition, including three in Southeast Europe, located in Zagreb, Belgrade, and Skopje.

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