Slovenia

This central European country was a part of the Aus-tro-Hungarian Empire until World War I, after which it became a part of what became the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. In 1991 it gained its independence as the Republic of Slovenia, with its capital and largest city being Ljubljana.

The health services during the period of the Austro-Hungarian Empire were relatively good in Ljubljana, but undeveloped in the nearby countryside. The effects of World War I led to the Kingdom of Yugoslavia having little money to spend on improving the medical services during the 1920s. The result was that Yugoslavia had the highest death rates from tuberculosis, with diphtheria, dysentery, malaria, syphilis, typhus and whooping cough relatively common. In 1934 King Peter II of Yugoslavia drew up plans to improve the healthcare system within the whole of Yugoslavia, with the Regional Institute for Research and Treatment of Neoplasms was established by Royal Decree in 1937. On August 1, 1938 the Regional Institute admitted its first cancer patients in what had been the Sempeter Barracks in Ljubljana. At that time it had 28 beds, dealing with 818 outpatients. In 1946, the Regional Institute was renamed the Institute of Oncology.

The establishment of the Tito government in Yugoslavia in 1944 led to many changes in the provision of health care, with the Yugoslav Red Cross, which covered Slovenia, being established in 1944, and the Cancer Registry of Slovenia established soon afterwards. The health services for the entire country were nationalized, and from the 1950s the administration of these were decentralized, leading to most of the Slovenian healthcare system being run from Ljubljana. There were some budgetary problems in the 1970s and early 1980s, leading to the emergence of a private sector with doctors and dentists being able to treat patients for payment. Although this was illegal, the government tolerated it as it reduced the stress on the government medical system. The Institute of Medical Sciences at ZRC SAZU was established in 1987, and there were medical faculties at the University of Ljubljana and the University of Maribor.

After independence in 1991, there were only 70 doctors and 180 other specialists (including dentists) for every 100,000 people. However it did have a very good healthcare infrastructure with 27 hospitals which had 12,000 beds in total, and forty regional health centers. There are now health centers in every city in the country, with clinics open from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m. each day, with many pharmacies around Slovenia. Tap water is safe throughout the country, with some coastal regions being over-chlorinated. There are increasing cases of hepatitis and HIV/AIDS, In 1983 there were 230 doctors for every 100,000 people in the country, and one bed for every 128 people in Slovenia. In 2006, with a population of 2,004,000, Slovenia had 228 doctors and 681 nurses per 100,000 people. In 1990, some 99.7 percent of all births in the country were attended by a medical health professional. Slovenia also provides free healthcare to foreign citizens from many countries including Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom.

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