Belgrade, June 14, 2023 - The first meeting of the Steering Committee of the project "EU for the Healthcare System of Serbia" was held in the premises of the UN House in Belgrade. It gathered representatives of the Delegation of the European Union, United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and World Health Organization (WHO), as well as national partners - Ministry of Health, Institute for Public Health "Dr Milan Jovanović Batut" and Ministry of European Integration. The participants discussed the Inception Report of UNDP and WHO, the activities carried out in the initial phase of the project, as well as further steps in its implementation.
The Head of the Cooperation, EU Delegation in Serbia, Nicola Bertolini, accentuated that with the acceleration of accession negotiations between the European Union and the Republic of Serbia, it is necessary to involve national institutions and their leadership in the implementation of the project. Therefore, it is necessary to identify responsible persons in national institutions and enable their active participation in order to ensure the sustainability of the project.
Resident Representative of UNDP in Serbia, Mr. Jakup Beriš pointed out that UNDP's focus in the coming period will be the reconstruction of microbiological laboratories within the Institute for Public Health in Belgrade, Niš and Kragujevac, as well as the upgrading of the Disaster Risk Register to include the public health related risks in this platform. Equally important is the expert support of UNDP and WHO to the Ministry of Health for the development of the eHealth system in Serbia, and the previous experience of both agencies in this area will enable the application of state-of-the-art solutions and harmonization with international and EU standards.
The World Health Organization Representative in Serbia, Fabio Scano, aligned on the point of the importance of the project for Serbia and its citizens, especially in light of the recent tragic events, after which, at the request of the Ministry of Health and in the agreement of the EUD, the priorities of the project are focused on ensuring training of health workers to react and provide psycho-social support in crisis as soon as possible. In addition to the training of employees from 25 public health institutes in order to establish a Laboratory Quality Management System in accordance with WHO standards, Mr. Scano also highlighted the successfully implemented mission of international WHO experts, realized in May 2023. During the visit, WHO experts with the support of UNDP met with representatives of the Ministry of Health, the Cabinet of the Prime Minister of Serbia, the Republic Health Insurance Fund, the Institute for Public Health "Dr Milan Jovanović Batut" and visited the Clinical Center of Serbia and Vračar Health Center in order to conduct a analysis of the information system management in the field of healthcare and evaluated the necessary steps to improve and establish a eHealth system in Serbia.
Assistant Minister Jelena Janković and Director of the Institute for Public Health "Dr Milan Jovanović " Verica Jovanović thanked for the support and contribution of the European Union in these important segments of the Serbian healthcare system and gave an overview of the cooperation so far on the project, which they assess as very successful.
After the presentation of the Inception Report, the attendees agreed on the activities and key steps in the implementation of the project until the end of the year, and scheduled the next Project Steering Committee meeting for September 2023. The need for more significant involvement of national institutions and closer monitoring of the implementation of activities related to the establishment of a comprehensive health information system – eHealth was underlined.
The project "EU for the Healthcare in Serbia", funded by EU, is implemented by UNDP and WHO in partnership with Ministry of Health.