The Croatian Medical Chamber (HLK) on Monday called on health administration professionals to urgently deal with problems in the process of vaccination, noting that it was a precondition for vaccinating most of the adult population as soon as possible.

“If we do not achieve a high vaccination rate by summer, we will not be able to stop the pandemic and we cannot expect a more significant tourism revenue or the launching of other economic activities that have come to a halt. The vaccination process so far has been hampered by many problems and has not been sufficiently fast,” the HLK said in a statement.

The HLK said that its analysis shows that family doctors and doctors employed at public health institutes have borne the brunt of the vaccination process, with family doctors having had the main role in contacting patients, making appointments, vaccinating them in their offices and participating in vaccination at locations for mass-scale inoculation, as well as that on top of their regular work, they treat COVID-19 patients with mild symptoms, refer them to get tested or diagnose the disease on their own with the help of rapid antigen tests.

The chamber said that the national information platform for vaccination has evidently not been functioning properly as most counties still do not use it due to its shortcomings.

The HLK suggests that health administration professionals should urgently establish a functioning national platform for vaccination, as well as that mass-scale vaccination should be organised in all counties, with a larger number of vaccination points, and that call centres should be established in all counties.

Apart from family doctors and epidemiologists, other doctors and health workers should also be involved in the vaccination process and adequately  equipped mobile teams should be formed in all counties to vaccinate bedridden people and patients having problem moving, the HLK says.