One gynecologist per 8,603 patients annually: Serbia's 'medical deserts' where women live

Women in Serbia are struggling to access adequate healthcare, facing what researchers describe as "medical deserts" characterized by a severe lack of doctors, information, and logistical support. This situation forces women to rely on their own resources to fill gaps in the system, often leading to delayed or forgone medical examinations.

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Medical deserts are places from which the state has withdrawn the conditions it is obliged to provide for people to exercise their right to health care.

Ljiljana Pantović from the Institute for Social Theory explained that these "medical deserts" are areas where the state has failed to provide essential healthcare services. Women in these regions must arrange their own transportation, pay for services that should be free, and seek information independently. Many remain silent about discrimination and poor treatment, fearing that if they complain, they might lose the little access they have.

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For women, it means they are left to their own resources, that they fill the gaps in the system. They organize their own transport, pay for what should be available to them, seek information that no one has given them, often postpone examinations, and often remain silent and endure discrimination and poor treatment, because they believe that if they do not go now and if that one doctor leaves, then they will not have health care at all.

Research indicates a stark reality: one gynecologist is responsible for 8,603 patients annually, according to Batut data. The situation is particularly dire in rural areas, with one example citing a single gynecologist covering 36 villages. Furthermore, only 34.5% of reproductive-aged women live within a 30-minute radius of a tertiary care facility. Some districts lack access to such specialized maternity and neonatal care within a 60-minute drive, creating "gynecological-obstetric deserts" where the distance to a maternity ward exceeds 80 kilometers.

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Our colleagues from the Faculty of Medicine showed back in 2019, as part of a European study, that in Serbia, in every administrative region, there is at least one medical desert that fits this definition according to those few criteria.

The study also pointed out that marginalized groups, including Roma women, face compounded discrimination upon entering the healthcare system, with their health often being devalued. The findings suggest a need for better monitoring of these "medical deserts" and prompt intervention by authorities to ensure women's right to health is upheld.

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Data from Batut show that, specifically in Kladovo, one gynecologist has 8,603 patients annually.