Staff members  - Photo:Photo: Gro Bakke
Photo: Gro Bakke

Visit to the General Hospital in Vinkovci

In April 2023, Norway and the hospital in Vinkovci marks 26 years of cooperation. It will be 26 years ago since the Polyclinic building at the hospital was finished reconstructed after the terrible war damages during the war in the 1990s. Vinkovci was one of the areas that was heavily damaged during the war. The relationship was marked with a visit from the Norwegian Embassy in Zagreb.

Present during the visit was one of the doctors who was working at the hospital during the war. Doc.dr.sc. Dražen Švagelj told about his own experiences during the war, and how he had to treat patients in the basement of the hospital while there were fighting battles close to them. The patients were often injured soldiers from the war. Švagelj also described the difficult working conditions, and how it was hard to get enough medical equipment.  

Thanks to the Norwegian Government, the building of the hospital was rebuilt, and new medical equipment was provided. This has been one of many projects in Croatia that has strengthened the bilateral relationship between the two countries.

Both Švagelj and the staff of the hospital showed their greatest gratitude to Norway under the visit. They made it clear that the help and funding provided from the Norwegian Government in the 1990s and the early 2000`s, has had an important impact on the health care that today is provided to the inhabitants of Vinkovci and surrounding areas.