Introduction. Health care, as one of the most important and sensitive fields
of human endeavour, has a significant social impact; therefore changes in
this area have wide implications on society in general. The latest economic
crisis resulted in slow growth of gross domestic product (GDP), high
unemployment rates, low living standards, and increased poverty across the
globe. This includes decreased capacity of health system, and reduced quality
and supply of health services. The aim of the study was to explore possible
impact of the current world economic crisis on the public health sector
workforce in Serbia. Materials and Methods. The study was conducted as
retrospective analyses of the Public Health Institute (PHI) human resource
data, the Republic Statistical Office publications and database, the Republic
Development Bureau report, as well as the analysis of healthcare expenditures
obtained from the Chamber of Health Institutions reports. The comparative
analytical method was used for the assessment of socio-economic and human
resource indicators over the period of five years, 2006 to 2010. Results.
Results showed that the world economic crisis discontinued steady economic
growth in Serbia. Between 2006 and 2008, the real GDP growth rate has been
fluctuating between 3.6% and 5.4 %, while in 2009 it had negative growth rate
of -3.1 % and slight increase in 2010 of 1.0%. In 2006, the GDP per capita
was US$ 3,943, and by 2008 it almost doubled reaching US$ 6,498, while in
2009 it fell down to US$ 5,499, and continued decrease in 2010 to US$ 5,006.
In 2007, the overall inflation rate was 6.5%, and after fluctuaion between
11.7% in 2008 and 8.4% in 2009 it droped again to 6.5% in 2010. According to
the PHI, from 2006 to 2008 there was steady increase of full-time employees
in the public health care sector; from 108,975 in 2006 to 114,317 in 2008. In
2009, the number of full-time employees slightly declined to 114,175 and
114,432 in 2010. There was constant increase in total number of employees in
the public health care sector, from 125,081 in 2006 to 129,357 in 2008. In
2009, the total number of employees decreased to 128,694 and in 2010 to
122,695. At the same time, the total expenditure of human resources in the
health sector as the percentage of total health expenditure declined from
37.7% in 2006 to 34.7% in 2010. The public health sector salaries after
steady increase from 59.9% of total health expenditure in 2006 to 61.2% in
2007 and 2008, decreased to 56.2% in 2010. The unemployment rate for medical
doctors almost doubled in 2010 as compared to 2006. Conclusion. Preliminary
study results showed that the world economic crisis had negative impact not
only on GDP growth rate, the inflation and unemployment rate, but on the
public health sector workforce, their salaries and unemployment rate in
Serbia.
Public health sector workforce in Serbia and world economic crisis
