The early beginnings of Slovenian medical education take root in the Enlightenment-era Academia operosorum (Academy of the Industrious, 1693–1725) and its medical section with the physician Marko ...Gerbec, although the Jesuit College introduced higher education in Ljubljana already in 1619. In 1782, a Medico-Surgical Academy was established in Ljubljana, the first to provide a secondary level of medical education. Later on, when a part of present Slovenian lands was included in the Illyrian Provinces (1809–1813) as a part of Napoleon’s French Empire, with Ljubljana as capital, the school advanced to the level of a medical faculty (École Centrale). The subsequent restoration of Austrian sovereignty prevented the school from completing even the first class of graduates’ training. In 1848, Medico-Surgical Academy was dissolved and only midwifery schools remained.
It was only after disintegration of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, as a consequence of the World War I, that in 1919 the first Slovenian University was established in Ljubljana, and within it a incomplete medical faculty was offering four preclinical semesters. In 1940, fifth and sixth semesters were added to the Faculty. The liberation impetus led in July 1945 to the establishment of a complete medical faculty including five years course divided in ten semesters. In the 1949/1950 academic year, the Faculty of Medicine was separated from the University and trained one generation of physicians as a medical college; in 1954, it was reintegrated into the University. During that period, in autumn 1949, the Faculty of Stomatology was established, which soon joined with the Faculty of Medicine, whereupon two departments were established: one for general medicine and one for stomatology (dental medicine). In the 1968/1969 academic year, the Faculty of Medicine introduced a master’s programme, and in 1995 a uniform doctoral programme; in the academic year 1989/1990 the programmes of medicine and dental medicine were extended to twelve semesters.
In 1975, the new Ljubljana Medical Centre building was finished and the Faculty thus obtained the necessary lecture halls, classrooms, and rooms for clinical practice. In the next decade, in 1987, the main preclinical institutes moved to the new building of the Faculty and students finally received state-of-the-art lab classrooms, facilities, and other infrastructure. In 2015, the Faculty also constructed a new building for preclinical institutes for biochemistry and cell biology. Throughout the years the programme has continued to improve and stay up to date, and the Bologna system of education was introduced in the academic year 2009/2010.
In its hundred years of existence, the Faculty of Medicine has trained approximately 9,000 physicians and 2,000 dentists, and awarded more than 1,700 doctors of science degrees and more than 1,000 master of science degrees in the postgraduate programme for physicians and dentists; it has also trained many students in graduate clinical training programmes. The Faculty of Medicine is oriented towards the future, a strong connection between theory and practice, interdisciplinary and international cooperation, and especially training new high-quality medical professionals.
Social diversity can affect healthcare outcomes in situations when access to healthcare is limited for specific groups. Although the principle of equality is one of the central topics on the agenda ...of the European Union (EU), its scope in the field of healthcare, however, is relatively unexplored. The aim of this study is to identify and systematically analyze primary and secondary legislation of the EU Institutions that concern the issue of access to healthcare for various minority groups. In our research, we have concentrated on three features of diversity: a) gender identity and sexual orientation, b) race and ethnicity, and c) religion or belief.
For the purpose of this analysis, we conducted a search of database Eur-Lex, the official website of European Union law and other public documents of the European Union, based on specific keywords accompanied by review of secondary literature. Relevant documents were examined with regard to the research topic. Our search covered documents that were in force between 13 December 2007 and 31 July 2019.
Generally, the EU legal system prohibits discrimination on grounds of religion or belief, racial or ethnic origin, sex, and sexual orientation. However, with regard to the issue of non-discrimination in access to healthcare EU secondary law provides protection against discrimination only on the grounds of racial or ethnic origin and sex. The issue of discrimination in healthcare on the grounds of religion or belief, gender identity and sexual orientation is not specifically addressed under EU secondary law.
The absence of regulations regarding non-discrimination in the EU secondary law in the area of healthcare may result from the division of competences between the European Union and the Member States. Reluctance of the Member States to adopt comprehensive antidiscrimination regulations leads to a situation, in which protection in access to healthcare primarily depends on national regulations.
Our study shows that EU antidiscriminatory law with regard to access to healthcare is fragmentary. Prohibition of discrimination of the level of European binding law does not fully encompass all aspects of social diversity.
The aim of the study was a comparative analysis of legislative measures against discrimination in healthcare on the grounds of a) race and ethnicity, b) religion and belief, and c) gender identity ...and sexual orientation in Croatia, Germany, Poland and Slovenia.
We conducted a search for documents in national legal databases and reviewed legal commentaries, scientific literature and official reports of equality bodies. We integrated a comparative method with text analysis and the critical interpretive approach. The documents were examined in their original languages: Croatian, German, Polish, and Slovenian.
All examined states prohibit discrimination and guarantee the right to healthcare on the constitutional level. However, there are significant differences among them on the statutory level, regarding both anti-discriminatory legal measures and other legislation affecting access to healthcare for groups of diverse race or ethnicity, religion or belief, sexual orientation or gender identity. Croatia and Slovenia show the most comprehensive legislation concerning non-discrimination in healthcare in comparison to Germany and even more Poland. Except for Slovenia, explicit provisions protecting equal access for members of the abovementioned groups are insufficiently represented in healthcare legislation.
The study identified legislative barriers to access to healthcare for persons of diverse race or ethnicity, religion or belief, sexual orientation or gender identity in Croatia, Germany, Poland and Slovenia. The discrepancies in the level of implementation of anti-discriminatory measures among these states show that there is a need for comprehensive EU-wide regulations, which would implement the principle of equal treatment in the specific context of healthcare. General anti-discrimination regulations should be strengthened by inclusion of anti-discrimination provisions directly into national legislation relating specifically to the area of healthcare.
Due to cultural, language, or legal barriers, members of social minority groups face challenges in access to healthcare. Equality of healthcare provision can be achieved through raised diversity ...awareness and diversity competency of healthcare professionals. The aim of this research was to explore the experiences and attitudes of healthcare professionals toward the issue of social diversity and equal access to healthcare in Croatia, Germany, Poland, and Slovenia.
The data reported come from semi-structured interviews with
= 39 healthcare professionals. The interviews were analyzed using the methods of content analysis and thematic analysis.
Respondents in all four countries acknowledged that socioeconomic factors and membership in a minority group have an impact on access to healthcare services, but its scope varies depending on the country. Underfunding of healthcare, language barriers, inadequate cultural training or lack of interpersonal competencies, and lack of institutional support were presented as major challenges in the provision of diversity-responsive healthcare. The majority of interviewees did not perceive direct systemic exclusion of minority groups; however, they reported cases of individual discrimination through the presence of homophobia or racism.
To improve the situation, systemic interventions are needed that encompass all levels of healthcare systems - from policies to addressing existing challenges at the healthcare facility level to improving the attitudes and skills of individual healthcare providers.
Background: Marcus Gerbezius, a distinguished Slovenian physician and scientist from the turn of the 17th to the 18th Century, published in the year 1717 an article in the annual journal of the ...German Academy of Natural Scientists in Halle, in which he described a patient with a clinical presentation of extreme bradycardia due to a complete atrioventricular block. Methods: methodology of history of medicine, analysis of archival materials, documents, and various publications.Results: Presentation of the life and work of Marcus Gerbezius, emphasizing the significance of his pioneering discovery of what is known today as Adams-Stokes Syndrome.Conclusion: The article by Gerbezius was published almost 50 years before Morgagni’s, and about 150 years before Adams’ or Stokes’ articles on the same subject; therefore the name of Gerbezius should be included in the eponym name of the disorder “Syndrome Gerbezius-Morgagni-Adams-Stokes” – Syndrome GMAS.
Diversity competency is an approach for improving access to healthcare for members of minority groups. It includes a commitment to institutional policies and practices aimed at the improvement of the ...relationship between patients and healthcare professionals. The aim of this research is to investigate whether and how such a commitment is included in internal documents of hospitals in Croatia, Germany, Poland, and Slovenia. Using the methods of documentary research and thematic analysis we examined internal documents received from hospitals in these countries. In all four countries, the documents concentrate on general statements prohibiting discrimination with regard to healthcare provision. Specific regulations concerning ethnicity and culture focus on the issue of language barriers. With regard to religious practices, the documents from Croatia, Poland, and Slovenia focus on dominant religious groups. Observance of other religious practices and customs is rarely addressed. Healthcare needs of patients with non-heteronormative sexual orientation, intersexual, and transgender patients are explicitly addressed in only a few internal documents. Diversity competency policies are not comprehensively implemented in hospital internal regulations in hospitals under investigation. There is a need for the development and implementation of comprehensive policies in hospitals aiming at the specific needs of minority groups.
In 1945, a class of 302 students enrolled at the newly established full Faculty of Medicine in Ljubljana with ten semesters of courses. Approximately 200 of them graduated five years later ...notwithstanding the faculty’s deficiencies in staffing and funding. By the end of 2009, the Ljubljana Faculty of Medicine had trained over 8,500 doctors and dentists. The first class of teachers and students faced many problems, but solved them over time. The spatial situation was solved by government decrees that temporarily assigned the Šempeter barracks, the clinics and health centers of the Ljubljana Hospital to the Faculty of Medicine. Staffing difficulties were solved by awarding professorships to experts in various areas. The problem of textbooks was overcome by students taking notes during lectures and copying them. Initial over-enrollment was solved by academic selection with strict criteria. The student youth organization directed cultivation of the body and mind with political overtones, and led compulsory “volunteer” labor campaigns throughout Yugoslavia. With great effort, despite all the postwar deficiencies, and at the same time enthusiasm for success and the zeal of all involved, the school was formed. It was further developed, year after year, producing ever better doctors with increasingly greater knowledge, comparable to global standards.
In Slovenia, transplantation of tissues such as skin and bone was successfully following global trends throughout its history. First documented homologous skin graft was already mentioned back in ...1901. Alongside with new discoveries in immunology and advancements in burn surgery, skin transplantation development surged in the second half of 20th century. Slovenia's first and currently the only skin bank was established in 1973, in Ljubljana. Throughout its existence it always managed to supply skin grafts for patients that were in vast majority burn victims. The bone bank was established twenty years earlier, in 1952. Homologous bone grafts helped patients with trauma injuries and tumour resections. Besides skin and bone grafts, cartilage and other soft tissues have also been used for transplantation - tympanic membrane and cartilage transplants being used in ear surgery. International inclusion of Slovenian physicians allowed comparable results and introduction of new methods at home and around the world.
Ortopedija se u Sloveniji počela razvijati nakon Prvoga svjetskog rata s pojavom velikog broja ratnih invalida. Dr. Anton Brecelj, koji je 1919. postavio temelje invalidskoj skrbi, motivirao je ...češkog liječnika dr. Franca Minařa da specializira ortopediju te je po povratku sa specijalizacije 1923., u okviru Kirurškog odjela ljubljanske bolnice otvorio ortopedski pododjel. Poslije mu se pridružio dr. Brecelj koji je 1937. preuzeo vodstvo odjela. Nakon 1945., kada je bio ostvaren kompletan Medicinski fakultet u Ljubljani, ortopedija je postala samostalna specijalizacija. Osnovane su Katedra za ortopediju i fizikalnu medicinu te Ortopedska klinika. Uz razvoj struke i klinike, liječnici Ortopedske klinike sudjelovali su i u otvaranju drugih slovenskih ortopedskih ustanova: Bolnice za koštanu tuberkulozu u Valdoltri 1946., koja će postati najveća ortopedska bolnica u Sloveniji, te brojnih specijaliziranih ambulanti i ortopedskih odjela u drugim slovenskim gradovima. Uz to, nastali su i Škola za fizioterapeute i Zavod za rehabilitaciju invalida u Ljubljani, Dom za invalidnu mladež u Kamniku te Lječilište i rehabilitacijski centar u Laškom. Godine 2011. ortopedija u Sloveniji raspolaže s oko 600 postelja i brojnim ambulantama. Ortopedijom se bavi oko 75 specijalista koji godišnje liječe oko 50.000 pacijenata
PDF
