Gornji Matejevac Gets Free Heart Checkups
Cardiologists from UKC Nis and the Niska Banja Institute examined residents of Gornji Matejevac on Sunday. Ten patients were referred for further testing in Nis.
When did you last have your blood pressure checked, or an EKG done? If you live in one of the villages around Nis, on Sunday, September 13, you could have had both done for free, with no appointment and no trip into the city.
Cardiologists from the University Clinical Center Nis (UKC Nis) and the Niska Banja Institute arrived in Gornji Matejevac near Nis that day, joined by young doctors and medical students who volunteered for the campaign. Checkups started at 10 a.m. and included EKGs, blood pressure measurements, heart ultrasounds and blood sugar tests. According to some sources, vascular surgeons, a neurologist and anesthesiologists were also on hand, while Nis TV also lists oncological surgeons and urologists among the team. According to TV Zona plus, this is the first time the City of Nis has partnered on a campaign like this, even though UKC Nis and the Niska Banja Institute are both national institutions.
What the First Follow-Up Results Show
The village checkups don’t end after a single day in the field. UKC Nis also runs a call center that later phones people on its list to check how they are doing. That is where the first concrete number came from: of around 200 patients contacted, ten were asked to come back to UKC Nis for further testing.
“Around 200 out of 1,006 have been contacted, and ten patients were referred for further treatment and additional testing,” said docent Dr. Milan Lazarevic, acting director of UKC Nis, to TV Zona plus.
Sources disagree on the number 1,006. Glas juga and Gradski portal 018 write that this many people have been examined so far across the village campaigns. TV Zona plus, on the other hand, reports that 1,006 is actually the list of patients the UKC Nis call center follows up with by phone, to check on their therapy or arrange a new checkup. Where the sources agree is that around 200 people from that group were contacted, and ten were sent back to the Clinical Center.
Lazarevic also pointed to the city’s support, speaking to Gradski portal 018.
“I’ve been at the Clinical Center a long time, but I don’t remember the City ever deciding to help the Clinical Center before.”
The reason campaigns like this exist at all comes down to a habit of avoiding the doctor until something actually hurts. Lazarevic put it briefly to Glas juga.
“You’ll often hear people say: ‘I’m not going to the doctor, they’ll find something wrong with me.’ That’s why we’re here.”
Who Are the Patients Doctors Are Finding
The director of the Niska Banja Institute, docent Dr. Dejan Petrovic, says the people examined include serious cardiac cases, among them patients who already have stents or implanted defibrillators.
“I had several genuinely serious patients, patients who have stents, as well as some with implanted defibrillators,” Petrovic told Gradski portal 018.
He also flags who actually shows up for these checkups.
“Our people avoid checkups, that’s why we’re here to change that. Older people come, younger people rarely do, even though many of them have problems too,” Petrovic told TV Zona plus.
One of the residents who came in for a checkup in Gornji Matejevac was Zivka Krstic. She hadn’t seen a doctor in two years, and it was her grandson and granddaughter who drove her there.
“I haven’t been to the doctor in two years. My grandson and granddaughter brought me. The results are good. This is great,” Zivka told Glas juga.
Where the Doctors Go Next
This is neither the first nor the last stop. According to TV Zona plus, the campaign has so far covered more than 20 villages, including Mramor. The team had earlier been in Malca, after which a date was announced for Donji Matejevac, as Niske novine reported on September 10. The goal, according to UKC Nis and the Niska Banja Institute, is for doctors to eventually visit practically every village in the Nis area.
If you have parents or grandparents in the villages around Nis, this is a good reason to ask them whether they’ve heard about this campaign. The checkup takes little time, costs nothing, and by the doctors’ own account, it’s exactly those ten people from each round who are the reason the campaign runs in the first place. Keep an eye on local announcements, since the village schedule is published ahead of each date.
