Periodic cancellation of non-emergency and non-essential medical procedures and the exclusive admission of emergency and cancer patients during the coronavirus crisis have become a common hospital practice in Croatia, but in spite of that, waiting lists for specialist examinations have never been shorter, Jutarnji List daily reported on Tuesday.

According to the daily, those waiting lists still exist, but the waiting period for a specialist examination in a hospital has become shorter.

In the pre-pandemic year 2019, a patient had to wait for an ergometric test in Zagreb’s Sisters of Charity Hospital for 260 days, while the current waiting time is 160 days. In the General Hospital in the town of Bjelovar, waiting time for the same procedure was 402 days in 2019, while now it is 201 days.

In the city of Pozega General Hospital, patients have to wait two months for an ergometric test, while in 2019 the waiting time was 464 days. Gastroscopy is available in three days, while the previous waiting time was 76 days on average.

The situation is similar in the hospitals in the towns of Nasice and Koprivnica.

Davor Vagic, director of Zagreb’s Sisters of Charity Hospital, believes the shorter waiting time has to do with several factors and the actual situation will be known only after the coronavirus crisis.

“It is a fact that we have shorter waiting lists and that we have been working on this continually. We have also done some work reorganisation and we have not reduced the number of examinations. But it is too early to say what the real reason for shorter waiting lists is. It is possible that some patients do not register for specialist examinations due to the epidemic,” Vagic said.

Jasna Karacic, of the Association for the Promotion of Patient Rights, believes that time will show that the situation with public health is not better but is actually worse.