The Croatian Chamber of Nurses on Friday welcomed the announced changes in the emergency medical service system, which are expected to expand the authority and enhance the education of nurses and emergency medical technicians on the model of European countries, as suggested by Health Minister Milan Kujundzic.

The association said in a press release that they advocate the establishment of emergency service teams that will include highly educated nurses specially trained for emergency medical service and who will have the authority to administer necessary medications and conduct a set of life-saving protocols until the arrival of a physician or until the patient is transported to a hospital.

For this to be achieved, it is necessary to amend the existing legislature, under which nurses can only administer therapy prescribed in advance by medical doctors.

Since the start of the reform of the emergency medical services’ system, the association has advocated high education of nurses and medical technicians included in emergency medical service squads, the press release said.

To this end, they launched the process for drawing up documents that will describe the required qualification levels for members and employees of emergency medical services squads, they added.

Concerning the minister’s announcement that paramedics may be introduced into Croatia’s emergency medical services system, the chamber said that engagement of paramedics is now a part of European trends in providing first aid to patients.

In England and Ireland this job is done by highly educated nurses and technicians or medical doctors, who undergo at least three or four years of tertiary education and complete a certified education programme to work in emergency medical services sector.

Health Minister Kujundzic said on Thursday the emergency medical service system should be overhauled and that over the past year the ministry had been working on changes to increase the powers and bolster the education of nurses and emergency medical technicians on the model of European countries.

“On the one hand, we are aware there are never enough teams that will urgently go out and save lives, while on the other, we are aware the system needs to be changed and adjusted to the world. A majority of developed countries have no physician in emergency care or have very few,” he told the state broadcaster HRT.

He said Croatia was among the countries in the EU with the highest number of physicians in emergency medicine per capita.