24.01.2012.

Donation by the European Union to the Military Health Care System

Defence Minister Sutanovac and Vincent Degert, Head of Delegation of the European Union to the Republic of Serbia, accompanied by Zoran Vesic, State Secretary in the Ministry of Defence, Major General Milan Bjelica, Deputy Chief of Serbian Armed Forces General Staff, Milos Simonovic, Mayor of Nis, Colonel Zoran Popovic, Head of Military Health Department of the Ministry of Defence and the associates, visited today the Military Hospital and the central location for medical waste treatment.

After visiting the analog mammography apparatus at the Military Hospital and the Sivara military complex, the Minister pointed out that this is the donation by the European Union worth one hundred and fifty thousand euros.

"The European Union has for many years, donated medical equipment to the health care system of Serbia, and in recent years these donations were directed also to the military health care system. An important reason for these donations is the fact that the Serbian Government made a decision several years ago to classify the military hospitals in Belgrade and Novi Sad, together with civilian hospitals in the same plane, which ensures the possibility of treating the civilians in military hospitals. Since last week, the Military Hospital in Nis will be available to all the citizens of Nis and the surroundings", Minister Sutanovac said.

He said that all the apparatuses which are to be installed in the Nis Military Hospital will be available to all citizens, not just the military, which is a big step forward in the reform we conduct in the defence system.

The Minister announced that the year 2012 will be the year of Renaissance for the military health care system.

"We want to invest serious resources to the military health care system, to return certain capacities that we have in Kragujevac back to a level that is required for the city such as Kragujevac and the civilians who live there. We are also announcing the purchase of certain multi-purpose aircraft, primarily in the field of medicine and sanitation, which will provide adequate treatment for all members of the Serbian Armed Forces and the citizens who need the treatment", he said.

Speaking about the medical waste treatment plant, Minister Sutanovac pointed out that the purchase of the equipment used for sterilization of medical waste rounded up the issue of taking care for the environmental protection which ranked the Nis Military Hospital among those that fully comply with European standards on environmental protection.

The capacity of the central facility for treatment of medical waste from Nis Military Hospital is up to one hundred kilograms of waste per day and it has been fully operational for a month. Complete medical supplies for use in working with patients must undergo sterilization, and be converted to the communal waste ready for the disposal. Such plants are available also in Nis Clinical Centre and Nis Primary Health Care Centre. The value of the plant is around 75 thousand euros, which is the approximate value of the donation for the analog mammography unit. In the first phase the plant will only be used for military purposes, in the second phase it will include the departments of primary care under the territorial responsibility of the Military Hospital, and in the third phase cooperation with civil structures has been planned.

Vincent Degert emphasised that an important thing happened last week in the Nis Military Hospital, because this institution opened its doors to the civilian insured from Nis.

"I am glad that the European Union was in a position to contribute to this development by donating necessary medical equipment. Serbia is, unfortunately, at the top of the list of countries by the number of patients suffering from breast, uterus and colon cancer. The Mammography Unit is very important for the detection of breast cancer and therefore the EU has donated 21 mammography units, and as of today one of these machines in Nis is also available to patients from both the military and the citizenry. In this way we are improving health and quality of life of the citizens in Serbia", Degert said.

Mayor of Nis, Milos Simonovic, thanked for the donations to the city and expressed his belief that they will allow for improvement of the conditions of treatment for the citizens of Nis, but also for the Military Hospital to meet all the standards to ensure a high level of service.

"Everything that we have planned and arranged with the Ministry of Defence has been fully realized. In addition to the successful start of exchange of real estates between the Ministry of Defence and the City of Nis, in which we were the first in Serbia, by opening of military hospitals for all citizens of Nis and the region we are achieving the goal set up several years ago, and it was that the Military Hospital, in the absence of a general hospital, assume such a role for all citizens of Nis", Simonovic emphasized.

ANSWER TO THE QUESTION OF JOURNALISTS

Asked by reporters about the alleged dossier of General Dikovic, which appeared in the media yesterday, Minister Sutanovac emphasized that it is a false dossier that charges General Dikovic "in inappropriate, and in some segments monstrous way for crimes which he allowed by his acts or omissions from a position where he was".

"I must say that before General Dikovic was appointed as Chief of SAF GS performed all the checks on his work in the past, and yesterday we made a check against the dossier for which we found to be completely false. In layman's insight into the personal files, official and official, of General Dikovic, we can confirm that he was not even in positions for which he is charged, even at these locations", Sutanovac emphasized, adding that General Dikovic in 1994 and in 1995 was not in the area of western Serbia, just as in 1998 he was not in the region of Kosovo and Metohija.

"I expect, on the one hand, an adequate response from the authorities, and I expect that General Dikovic will seek protection in court, because I believe it would be a great test of democracy in Serbia, because if people can be mucked in this way, then everything is allowed. In Serbia, not everything can be allowed, everyone must be accountable for what they say, write or do. We are at peace regarding that false dossier, but the question is why someone starts such an initiative at a time when the Serbian Armed Forces receives the largest support from citizens in recent years, at the moment when we are gaining affinity at the international level which we have not had for a long time, and is it the continuation of the part of the story of the self-proclaimed minister of Internal Affairs of Kosovo, who said that General Dikovic came to his position "on arms". The CHOD is appointed to this position as all CHODs in the world and I think that we will have a serious debate about it in the government institutions", said the minister.

Answering to the question about exchange of real estates with the City of Nis, Minister Sutanovac said that Nis is one of the cities in which the surplus military assets have been exchanged in an appropriate way.

"The plan for the Military Club was very ambitious and we wish to work together with the City on building a Congress Centre that would be available to the citizens of Nis and the Serbian Armed Forces, after the model of such centres that exist in the world. In Nis, we plan to build also a large logistic centre. Nis is very important for us. I recall that there are the Army Command and the Third Brigade situated in Nis. I wish to emphasize that two billion dinars are received by active members and military retirees annually and that this money goes to Nis, by which we support regional development", Sutanovac underlined.

Minister Sutanovac also underlined that in the coming weeks we are expecting the signing of the contract by which a part of the capacities of the Military Hospital in Nis will be made available to civilians. "The important thing – Sutanovac said – is the fact that this year we will renew also other diagnostic devices in the Nis Military Hospital. We wish that our patients can perform all the necessary interventions and receive full service in Nis", he pointed out.

Speaking about the Armed Forces Day, the Minister sad that the issue of changing that date was given much thought in previous years.

"Serbia has a long history and tradition of the armed forces. The Armed Forces Day, the National Day and the Insurrection Day are all celebrated in one day, so we wanted to separate those dates. In addition, under the new law, the National Day is celebrated two days, and we believe it is not appropriate that the members of the Armed Forces work on these two days, especially as the general public would not be able to adequately follow the exercises and the programme that we would prepare to mark our holiday. Based on the consultations with historians, we concluded that 23rd April is a very important date in the Serbian history, which is why we accepted it", Sutanovac concluded.