The Croatian Ministry of Health has announced the installation of the first linear accelerator (cancer treatment device) of 21 to be provided for citizens under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, following a pledge from the government to invest €85 million in oncology treatment.
The accelerators have been funded through the EU Recovery and Resilience Facility, designed to help member states overcome challenges resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, which saw a total of €723.8 billion in loans and grants made available to support national initiatives to be implemented before the end of 2026.
Under this EU scheme, the Croatian government has received a reported €10 billion in grants and loans, to be used toward a range of economic and social challenges with a focus on “green and digital transition”.
Vili Beroš, Croatian Minister of Health, paid a visit to the Zadar General Hospital to see the installation in progress, which also included a CT simulator and “dosimetry and fixation devices”, bringing the estimated cost to around €4 million.
Beroš said that the installation of the linear accelerator made Zadar General Hospital part of “a unique radiotherapy network of institutions in Croatia”, adding that by taking this step the Ministry “enable the availability and equal quality of therapy in every part of Croatia”.
According to the Ministry, “Zadar County is at the very top” in terms of the number of patients in Croatia with “malignant diseases”, and the provision of this “modern equipment” will be “useful in increasing more favourable outcomes of treatment of oncology patients”.
The linear accelerator is hoped to help boost radiotherapy treatment in the region, by offering a more precise and image-guided treatment for cancer using radiation.
In other news relating to cancer care, a $20 million donation to Mayo Clinic, a not-for-profit American academic medical centre, has been made by Dwight and Dian Diercks to “fuel key elements of Mayo Clinic’s vision for the future of healthcare”, with the fund intended to boost initiatives such as developing generative AI tools for insight into individual risk of cancer.
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