KEYES OF VEHICLES GIVEN TO EMERGENCY MEDICAL ASSISTANCE SERVICES

30. March 2015.

Belgrade - Zlatibor Loncar, the Minister of Health, handed over the keys of 34 specialized vehicles for emergency medical assistance to representatives 24 health centers and to the City Institute for Emergency Medical Assistance in Belgrade.

The ambulances were awarded to the City Institute for Emergency Medical Assistance (10 vehicles) and to the emergency medical assistance departments of health centers in 14 cities, which include Cuprija, Gornji Milanovac, Vrbas, Pozega, Priboj, Petrovac na Mlavi, Lazarevac, Senta , Sombor, Ub , Obrenovac, Ruma, Backa Topola, Bujanovac, Novi Pazar, Kursumlija, Vlasotince, Krusevac, Arandjelovac , Uzice , Topola , Kraljevo, Smederevska Palanka and Koceljeva.

Upon handing over the keys, Minister Loncar said that the vehicles were equipped according to the latest international standards, and that they should be as soon as possible in the places for which they were intended, so that they could help the people who needed help.

“We want these vehicles to contribute to an improvement in health services in Serbia, because our citizens deserve that“, Minister Loncar pointed out.

The Head of the World Bank Office in Serbia, Tony Verheijen, said the handover of the vehicles was part of the effort to enable health centers to improve their services.

He said that many of the vehicles in different health centers were damaged in the floods that had occurred in Serbia the year before, due to which they couldn’t be used any longer

Mr. Verheijen expressed satisfaction that the World Bank had enabled the purchase of vehicles which were equipped according to all the international standards, and voiced hope that the good cooperation with the Ministry of Health would continue.

For the purpose of improving the quality of health care, the Ministry of Health, with the financial support from the World Bank, provided a total of 64 vehicles for emergency medical assistance, that are fully equipped with the supporting medical devices, valued at 3.4 million euros.

The procurement was made within the project “Delivery of Improved Local Services”(DILS ).

Last October, 30 such vehicles were donated. In five months of their use throughout the country, emergency assistance teams transported in those vehicles about 11, 000 patients and covered more than 450, 000 kilometers.

Source: “Tanjug” news agency and Coordination Body