Nis hospital says waiting lists are gone, blood bank next
Milan Lazarevic, head of the University Clinical Center Nis, laid out his first two and a half months in charge. No more queues for bypass surgery, hip replacements or MRI scans, he says.
Still bracing for a months-long wait in Nis for an MRI or a hip replacement? Management at the University Clinical Center Nis (UKC Nis) says there is no wait at all. The hospital presented its results on August 1, 2026, and director Milan Lazarevic said every waiting list had been cleared in two and a half months.
The arithmetic is easy to follow. The new management took over in mid-May, so this is the first set of numbers it could plausibly put on the table. That also makes it easy to test, because most of what was announced comes with a date attached.
What UKC Nis says no longer has a queue
Lazarevic named the procedures he says are now booked without a backlog:
- coronary bypass surgery and artificial heart valves
- hip and knee replacements
- CT and MRI scans
One exception survived. Ophthalmology still books two weeks ahead, and the plan is to close that gap within 14 days by adding afternoon shifts. The deadline lands around mid-August, and it is the first claim a patient can check with a single phone call.
How patients reach the hospital now
Five mobile phone lines are open for calls. They are not staffed by a call center but by the director’s deputies and the head nurse. The hospital says it has held more than 400 conversations with patients and settled over 95 percent of the complaints raised.
“We have held over 400 conversations and resolved more than 95 percent of the problems,” Lazarevic said at the presentation of the hospital’s results.
Specialist clinics have added a second shift, a legal anti-corruption team has been set up, and a day hospital for pain therapy has opened, the first of its kind south of Belgrade. A day hospital means treatment during working hours without an overnight stay, which is a different arrangement from a standard admission for people living with chronic pain.
Lazarevic summed up the approach in one line: “The patient is no longer a number, but a person the system has to help quickly.”
What does an in-hospital blood bank change?
The hospital announced it will open the first in-hospital blood bank in Nis. The difference is where the stock sits, because the hospital would then keep supplies on its own grounds rather than bring them in when a case demands it.
“Blood will wait for the patient, not the patient for blood,” Lazarevic said.
No opening date was given, which is the second promise worth tracking.
New procedures, new construction
UKC Nis performed a TAVI procedure for the first time in its history, replacing an aortic valve through a catheter instead of opening the chest. Kidney transplants are back as well.
“We have brought back kidney transplants, five have been done since the start of the year,” Lazarevic said.
Building permits and clearance from the Defense Ministry are in hand for a new maternity hospital. The building is planned with 17 operating theaters and more than 40 intensive care beds. More than 100 new parking spaces have already been added, a small item next to the operating theaters, though not for someone driving in from Vranje for a check-up.
Staffing is being handled through training: 29 specialist and 17 subspecialist places have been funded for 46 doctors in total.
Screening outside the hospital
Preventive campaigns covered eight locations, examined 670 people and referred 90 patients for further treatment. That is roughly 13 percent of everyone who turned up for a free check and left with a finding that needed follow-up.
One practical step for anyone in southern Serbia: before you set off for Nis, call one of the five lines and ask for an appointment. If you are told to wait, that answer sits awkwardly next to the results presented on August 1, and it is worth checking twice.
