SPLIT CLINIC GETS NUCLEAR MAGNETIC RESONANCE DEVICE & HYPERBARIC CHAMBER

SPLIT, Dec 20 (Hina) - Croatian Health Minister Zeljko Rainer on Monday inaugurated a nuclear magnetic resonance device and a simulator worth US$1.8 million at the Clinic in the southern Croatian port of Split. Rainer and Croatian Navy commander vice-admiral Vid Stipetic also inaugurated a new hyperbaric chamber at the Croatian Navy Maritime Medicine Institute. The latest state-of-the-art devices will considerably improve diagnostics and the treatment of numerous patients in southern Croatia. Minister Rainer said the nuclear magnetic resonance device was one of six purchased for clinics in Croatia with funds earmarked from the state budget. Such technological equipment ranks Croatia not only among the leading countries in transition in the medical field, but also among developed Western European countries, he added. Rainer reminded that prior to the Serb aggression on Croatia earlier this decade, Croatia had only five mammography devices, whereas now there were 35, and only four CT scans, of which now there were 30. The health sector managed to achieve that in spite of all difficulties, he stressed. The health minister announced that talks at the Council of Europe for the reconstruction of Croatian health infrastructure were nearing completion, and that an agreement would soon be signed on a large loan from which the Split Clinic should receive US$20 million. (hina) ha mm