The sitting was organised with the help of the Ministry of Health and the Diabetes Association of Serbia, with the topic “Diabetes prevention in Serbia yesterday, today and tomorrow”.

Committee Chairperson Prof. Dr Slavica Djukic Dejanovic said that today’s sitting is an opportunity for the representatives of the legislative and executive power and the representatives of patients’ association to exchange views on the health of people suffering from diabetes, so as to improve their health.

“We have to think of diabetes 365 days a year, we have to concentrate our efforts on early diagnostics and prevention and today the public and all here present will learn about the initiatives conducted so far concerning the improvement of the health of people with diabetes and on the activities the realisation of which is planned for the coming period”, said Djukic Dejanovic.

Following the Committee Chairperson, the participants were addressed by Minister of Health Dr Zlatibor Loncar who stressed that diabetes ranks fifth among the causes of death in Serbia, as well as fifth most common medical condition in the country. Loncar said that almost 710 thousand people in Serbia suffer from diabetes, 465 thousand of whom know of their disease, while the remaining 265 thousand are as yet undiagnosed.

The Minister then went on to inform the participants about the Ministry’s activities aimed at improving the healthcare of people with diabetes, with the establishment of diabetes counselling services within the healthcare centres being the most important. 28 of the 40 healthcare centres have counselling services of this kind, and the plan is to set them up in all the healthcare centres in Belgrade.

“Promotion of diabetes-related healthcare across the spectrum - diagnostics, therapy and prevention, will be one of the priorities of the Ministry of Health in the coming period”, concluded the Minister.

In the ensuing discussion the participants exchanged views, opinions and knowledge on the situation regarding the proliferation of diabetes in Serbia.

On the behalf of the Ministry of Health the sitting was attended by Dr Zlatibor Loncar, Minister, and Dr Berislav Vekic, State Secretary, while on the behalf of the Republic Expert Commission for the Prevention and Control of Diabetes the sitting was attended by Prof. Dr Nebojsa Lilic. The sitting was also attended by the Vice President of the Diabetes Association of Serbia Stela Prgomelja, numerous MPs and representatives of the Republic Health Insurance Fund, Standing Conference of Towns and Municipalities, patients’ associations and pharmaceutical companies.

The sitting was chaired by Prof. Dr Slavica Djukic Dejanovic, Committee Chairperson.