About 200,000 inhabitants of the Una-Sana Canton depend on three cardiologists, stated cardiologist dr. Almir Handanagić, from the cantonal hospital "Dr. Irfan Ljubijankić" in Bihać for “Avaz’s” portal.

Without the possibility of regular check-ups

- This is the state of staffing, and we have three younger doctors who are subspecializing. The jobs that are currently in circulation in the cardiology department are served by the current three cardiologists who are employed. The coronavirus pandemic, as in all other clinical centers and cantonal hospitals, caused the focus to be placed on patients burdened with the covid virus and isolation - says Handanagić.

All this resulted, says Handanagić, in patients stopping regular check-ups.

- The result of this is that the patients, who are cardiology patients, were unable to come for their regular check-ups in cardiology clinics, and thus, for one reason, the patients were afraid of infection with covid, and for another reason, because there was a ban on work with outpatients due to the spread of infection - claims Handanagić.

Heart diseases

These are patients who had previously verified heart diseases.

- Mostly these were conditions after heart attacks, stent implantation, bypass insertion... Those patients were without standard monitoring and now it has come to the point that they are coming to emergency medical services, to emergency centers, because there has been a slight destabilization, to a certain degree of heart failure, because perhaps a correction of therapy or a change in therapy was needed - said Dr. Handanagić.

He points out that the result was that they were neglected. He added that after the relaxation of measures, these patients are escorted through outpatient clinics, but many of them also come through the emergency medical center, where they are received and treated in the department.

Waiting for an appointment

When asked how long someone waits for an appointment with a cardiologist, he stated that when it comes to emergencies, they are dealt with immediately.

- As for the standard procedures regarding the waiting list, these are appointments where the list is up to a month old. The wait for an ultrasound is two to three months. We have already reached almost all those lists that were really big during the pandemic - concluded Handanagić for the "Avaz’s" portal.