Six nurses and several physicians have arrived from Ukraine in Croatia to date, but the Croatian Nursing Council and the Croatian Medical Chamber (HLK) have not received any official request for the recognition of their qualifications and degrees.

Croatia lacks 2,000 physicians and 4,000 nurses, so the HLK proposed at a meeting at the Health Ministry recently that the process of recognising Ukrainian physicians’ degrees be stepped up.

The HKL said the law already allowed for the possibility of granting a 90-day licence.

Some of the Ukrainian physicians have contacted the HLK about the recognition of their degrees, but no one has officially requested it.

Ukraine is among the countries whose education systems are not aligned with the EU, so its physicians must take some exams for their degrees to be recognised.

The nostrification of a physician’s degree lasts six to 12 months and costs between 5,000 and 10,000 kuna on average, covered by the candidate.

In Croatia, the situation is critical in primary healthcare, where there is a shortage of 400 physicians. There is also a shortage of 1,600 physicians in hospitals and emergency medical services.

As for nurses, additional exams for secondary school qualifications are taken in five secondary schools, in the cities of Zagreb, Split, Rijeka, Osijek and Varazdin. The procedure for Ukrainian nurses takes eight months and costs 10,000 kuna.

As for bachelors of nursing, the procedure is conducted at the Croatian Nursing Council, costs 1,900 kuna and exams are conducted in Croatian.

(€1 = 7.5 kuna)