Nurses will be allowed to provide first and immediate medical aid without doctors, and they are supposed to undergo a year-long training to become paramedics who can provide this emergency medical service, the Jutarnji List daily reported on Friday.

The first round training for this purpose is to start this May. In the next three years, 370 nurses will be trained to become specialists in urgent pre-hospital treatment, and will have a  25% rise in their salaries.

After undergoing this training, such healthcare professionals who respond to emergency calls for medical help outside hospitals will have more powers and responsibilities, according the daily.

Currently, the emergency medical services system has two types of teams. The so-called EMS Team No. 1 consists of a clinician and a nurse, while Team No. 2 includes a male and a female nurse but they have no doctors. The scope of activities of EMS teams without doctors is actually reduced to medical transport.

Under the EU project, competent colleges will conduct training and education for future paramedics, and each year about 120 will enroll in such programmes, the daily quoted the head of the Croatian chamber of nurses, Mario Gazic, as saying.