Labour migration, from manual workers to university graduates, is an unacceptable ‘luxury’ for our small nation and must be stopped.
by: Jelena Stanišljević
Dr. StevanBajic was born on 27 September 1965. In 1995 he acquired the degree of the Doctor of Medicine and in 2000 he specialized in Pediatrics at the Banjaluka University School of Medicine while working as a ward physician at the Children’s Clinic of Banjaluka Medical Centre. In 1995, Dr.Bajic graduated from the YU Ultrasound School in Kragujevac, Serbia – Department of Echocardiography at the Medical School of Belgrade University, and in 1996 completed the Medical School of Kragujevac University. Between 2000 and 2003 he worked as a Pediatrician – ward physician at the Cardiology and Rheumatology Ward at the Children’s Clinic of Banjaluka Clinical Centre. He served as the head of the ward between 2003 and 2007, when he was appointed Chief of the Children’s Clinic and Chief of Cardiology of the Children’s Clinic at Banjaluka Clinical Centre, where he worked until 2011. Between January 2012 and June 2013 Dr.Bajic served as a Pediatric Cardiologist at the Children’s Ward in RB Novo Mesto of Novo Mesto Regional General Hospital. In 2005 he specialized in Cardiology at the Medical School of Belgrade University. In the period between 2000 and 2011 Dr.Bajic was a teaching assistant in practical training at the Medical School of Banjaluka University. He is a member of many professional associations: Association for European Pediatric Cardiology (AEPC) since 2006; a full member of the Cardiology Society of Serbia since 1999; RepublikaSrpska Society of Cardiology since 2001; Pediatrics Association of the RepublikaSrpska since 2002; Slovenian Society of Cardiology since 2012; Slovenian Pediatric Society since 2012.
Since June this year you have been working at Clinical Centre again after two years in Slovenia. How did you decide to return? What is different now, compared to the time when you left?
Dr.Bajic: I moved with my family to Slovenia in late 2011, after working at Banjaluka Clinical Centre for a long time. I didn’t fall in the group of doctors who went abroad for primarily economic reasons. I left because I was unhappy with many things going on here. Very soon, I experienced professional affirmation and financial relief there; but, I didn’t feel as emotionally and socially fulfilled as I did when I was working and living here. That is what prevailed when I decided to return. Had I fallen in the other group, I probably wouldn’t have considered going back.
What is the situation you found when you returned to the Children’s Cardiology and Rheumatology Ward?
Dr.Bajic: What makes me most satisfied is that I am no longer alone on the Ward. I work with three young successful physicians at the Children’s Cardiology and Rheumatology Ward. The situation is now completely different from the time when I worked alone and when my younger colleagues were starting their pediatric training. It is my great pleasure and relief to work with them now.
Young people want to live and work in the RepublikaSrpska, and that has to mean having high-quality and dignified life, exercising right to work and securing subsistence from their own work and effort.
Many young doctors are leaving RepublikaSrpska. What can be done to keep them?
Dr.Bajic: The most serious problems of this society are an extremely low birth rate, negative population growth and population drain. This country and its people are slowly disappearing and we have been on the brink of the abyss for a long time. Labour migration, from manual workers to university graduates, is an unacceptable ‘luxury’ for our small nation and the trend must be stopped. Our authorities must address this issue with high priority.
Do you see the potential, will and knowledge among your younger colleagues to learn and create a better healthcare system and society in the RepublikaSrpska?
Dr.Bajic: I believe that young people in the RepublikaSrpska have genuine will and considerable energy to learn, work and thus contribute to meeting high European standards in healthcare, as well as other sectors of life and work. Young people want to live and work in the RepublikaSrpska, and that has to mean having high-quality and dignified life, exercising right to work and securing subsistence from their own work and effort.
