​The Government of the Republic of Srpska held today its 29th session during which it approved the project "Construction and equipping of a new facility, reconstruction, adaptation and equipping of the existing facility of JZU hospital in Zvornik". The estimated value of the project is BAM 26 million.

The Government also accepted the Business Activity Report of the Public Health Institute of the Republic of Srpska for the period of January through December  2018, the Work Program and Financial Plan of the Public Health Institute of the Republic of Srpska for 2019, the 2018 Annual Activity Report and the 2019 Work Program and Financial Plan of the Center for Children and Youth with Development Difficulties "Buducnost" in Derventa.

Minister of Health and Social Welfare of the Republic of Srpska Alen Šeranić stated after the session that based on the agreement with the Government of the Republic of Serbia, there were already donor funds in the amount of BAM 1,515,000 for the project in Zvornik.

"This means we will continue to improve the quality of hospital accommodation in the Republic of Srpska", Minister Šeranić said and added that the Government considered the reports on the work and operations of health and social protection institutions and how to improve the work of those institutions.

With regard to the work of social welfare institutions, Minister Šeranić emphasized the positive business results of most of those institutions.

Minister Šeranić further emphasized that the Government of the Republic of Srpska was committed to forming of a toxicology laboratory at the Institute of Forensic Medicine of the Republic of Srpska and establishing preconditions for medical transplantation in the Republic of Srpska.

According to him, the future plans pertain reconstruction of the Home for the Disabled People in Višegrad, Psychiatric Hospital in Sokolac, Special Hospital for Chronic Psychiatry in Modriča and the Clinic for Psychiatry of the University-Clinical Center in Banja Luka.

"We are working with the UNDP and the Bank of the Council of Europe. If everything goes well, I expect that in the spring or summer next year we can start with reconstruction. This will solve the problem of accommodation quality in these institutions in the long term", Minister Šeranić said.

He reminded that the Government of the Republic of Srpska approved during its previous session the funds for reconstruction works at the "Dr Mladen Stojanovic" Hospital in Prijedor, Special Hospital "Mljecanica" and the General Hospital in Gradiska, which would be carried out simultaneously with the energy efficiency projects in those institutions.

Minister Šeranić announced that the Ministry of Health was working on eight pieces of legislations that will be sent to the National Assembly of Republic of Srpska in September for the purpose of improving the system of health and social protection in Republic of Srpska.

Director of the Zvornik Hospital, Ivan Popović expressed hope that after an international public call and selection of the best bidder take place, the construction of the new block of the Hospital in Zvornik would start in late October this year.

Popovic pointed out that the Hospital Zvornik provides secondary health care to the residents of the area of Birač which comprises seven municipalities and six health centers.

"This is the biggest project in the Birac area. Medical equipment have not been changed for the last ten years and some parts of the existing hospital facility are 50, 60 and 70 years old. This is a great day for the residents of the area of Birac", the Director of the Zvornik Hospital said.

Director of the Center for Children and Youth with Development Difficulties "Buducnost" from Derventa Vladan Popovic said that the Government adopted the program of work of this institution for 2019.

"We plan to reform and modernize this institution and to apply contemporary tendencies in the field of social protection. Our goal is to provide more services to the users, especially early treatment for the blind and visually impaired children what had not been available yet in Republic of Srpska. The blind and visually impaired and other people with disabilities lack social rehabilitation services and we will try to launch these services in cooperation with the line Ministry", Popovic said.

Acting Director of the Public Health Institute of the Republic of Srpska Branislav Zeljkovic said that their Work Plan for 2019 was to improve its competencies related to the protection of public health of the population expanding the number of tests and services required by the market and thus increasing the income.

"We invest large resources into education of personnel and procurement of modern equipment,  provision of vaccines and serums and our goal is to expand the set of vaccines that we can provide to the population", Zeljkovic said.