The aforementioned number of private health institutions (PHI) includes pharmacies, the majority of which are located in Podgorica (263), Bar (73), Niksic (67) and Budva (62), while municipalities of Plužine and Šavnik do not have a single medical institution of this type.
Owner of PHU Milmedika, Rade Kaluđerović, said for DN that his clinic (with a total of three institutions) has about 30 employees, 10 of which are doctors. He believes the reason why doctors are choosing to work in private clinics over public healthcare institutions is because their work is “more measurable” – when they work hard, they are rewarded.
“At a certain moment in their professional development, doctors feel the need to independently go into the private business where salaries depend on the volume of work”, explains Kaluđerović who inherited the practice from his mother, the original founder of Milmedika (23 years ago), and has been running it for the last 15 years.
However, he points out, work in the private sector carries with it certain disadvantages.
“We are out of the system, our recipes do not apply to the Health Fund, there is no vaccination in private institutions, there is no integrated Ambulance, ER, our instructions and referrals do not apply. Also, our private health care system does not have a joint insurance company or more private insurance companies for patients to choose from. Some things are still better in state institutions, not everything can be done in private clinics. We are dealing with primary care, laboratory diagnostics, general medicine. The maximum is day hospital, but we don’t have the capacity for hospital treatment in terms of beds”, said Kaluđerović.
