Delayed Pain: Waiting Lists in Serbia
TOO LONG A WAIT
Marina Nikolić’s entire life has been one long wait. As a child, her parents noticed something was wrong with her walking. At just one year old, she was diagnosed with a dislocation of both hips.
"Growing up, I knew I was heading for the operating table, sooner or later "
Over time, she learned to live with the pain, but in 2019 it became unbearable.
That year, for the first time, she was placed on a waiting list for surgery.
Even though she was a priority patient, since both of her hips were in poor condition, she spent four years and seven months on the waiting list.
Marina’s case is not an isolated one.
She is just one of tens of thousands of people on waiting lists in Serbian hospitals.
Some are waiting for MRI or CT scans, others for coronary angiography, cataract surgery, etc.
However, the largest group includes people like Marina, waiting for hip and knee replacements.
Even though President Aleksandar Vučić promised last year that waiting lists would be eliminated by the end of this year, and Minister Zlatibor Lončar said this would happen in the first half of 2026, CINS’s investigation reveals that the chances of this happening are slim.
Between December 19, 2024 and July 18, 2025, the list shrank by about a quarter.
However, the least progress was made among the most common cases – hip and knee surgeries – where the number of patients fell by only about 2,500.
LIFE IN AGONY
Savo Pilipović from the Serbian Patients Association has told CINS that those waiting for surgery struggle, suffer, and are in pain. They live in agony for years while awaiting surgery.
He adds, however, that waiting lists have been a long-standing issue because these patients are not seen as a priority – one cannot die from a bad knee or hip.
"They give up on waiting, they die before they get the surgery, but they don’t die because of their knee, hip, or cataract. And to be completely honest, the state doesn’t care about them at all."
When Predrag Popović was put on a waiting list, his doctor told him: “There are cases much worse than yours, you should be glad it’s not cancer.”
It first took him two years to even discover the cause of his debilitating back pain, which left him almost immobile.
After years of visits to various doctors, he was diagnosed with hip necrosis.
Less than 2,000 people were ahead of Predrag on the hip surgery list at the Banjica Institute for Orthopedic and Surgical Diseases.
The regulations of the Republic Health Insurance Fund stipulate that patients will wait up to 6 months for a hip replacement and up to 12 months for a knee replacement in cases of degenerative disease.
In reality, the situation is very different.
As of July 18, Banjica has had the highest number of patients waiting for hip or knee surgery, followed by the Clinical Center of Vojvodina and the Clinical Center of Serbia.
In these three hospitals, based on expected surgery dates, most patients waited between 18 months and over 3 years.
The Banjica Institute declined to speak to us, referring us instead to the Ministry of Health, which did not respond to our request for an interview.
Danijel Raspopović, an orthopedic specialist at the Banjica Institute and a member of the health committee of the opposition Party of Freedom and Justice, has told CINS that waiting lists must be reasonable, measured in months, not years.
What brought Predrag the biggest suffering was being a burden to his family. He could not walk, work, help around the house, care for his child, or take part in its upbringing as he would have liked.
At that point, for the first time, he thought about taking his own life.
Only three days after being put on the waiting list, Predrag’s mother died. The one silver lining was that he inherited property, which he sold to finance private surgeries on both hips.
The total cost, he says, was about 15,000 EUR.
You can hear his whole story in a special episode of CINS’s podcast “Glasna žica”.
WHO IS TO BLAME?
In the seven months during which CINS monitored waiting list changes, hip and knee surgeries decreased by an average of 12 per day. At that pace, even without new patients entering the system, the list would be cleared in November 2031.
The number of interventions as of July 18, 2025 is 27,726; the projection is calculated starting from that date, provided no new interventions are added.
By moving the slider, you change the pace of waiting list reduction from July 18, 2025. The calculator then estimates how long it would take for the waiting lists to be eliminated. Source of data: Republic Health Insurance Fund Graphic design: AI/Center for Investigative Journalism of Serbia (CINS)
Projection of Waiting List Reduction for Hips and Knees
Danijel Raspopović has told CINS that different institutions face different problems: too few operating rooms, orthopedic specialists, or nurses. In his view, the Ministry of Health is to blame for not solving these systemic issues.
"The result is dissatisfied doctors, dissatisfied nurses. Both groups are leaving the country in great numbers. (…) For years now, no one has been satisfied in this system, no one is happy."
Danica Grujičić, neurosurgeon, professor at the Faculty of Medicine, and former Minister of Health (2022-2024), says nurses, like doctors, are underpaid.
„No surgeon can operate on five hips a day, that’s not normal.“
She blames the Ministry of Finance for the shortage of medical staff.
Vesna Banović found her own way to cope with the healthcare system.
She has been on various waiting lists since 2021. That was the first time one of her two knees was scheduled for surgery.
In the following years, she also needed surgery on her other knee and both her hips.
She had her first knee operation after more than two years, and although born in Belgrade, she had the surgery in Kruševac. Following the same approach, she also had one of her hips operated on – this time in Vršac.
As she told CINS, she chose this kind of “tour” because the pain was unbearable.
People close to her were surprised by these decisions.
(NO) SOLUTION
Danica Grujičić believes more must be done on prevention: better nutrition, healthier environment, physical and mental activity.
She also argues that waiting lists are misleading, and in reality, there should be fewer people on them.
"Firstly, you have those who don’t want surgery. Secondly, you have people who benefit greatly from rehabilitation and therapy, which can delay surgery by 5 to 10 years. And thirdly, there are people who literally cannot walk."
She believes corruption is the cause of such inflated lists.
Similarly, Savo Pilipović from the Serbian Patients Association doesn’t trust the official numbers.
Unlike Grujičić, however, he thinks the situation is actually much worse.
"Some people aren’t even put on the list, some are removed, some are pressured to wait another two years."
He believes the government must allocate more funds for healthcare, but also spend it wisely. He adds that there needs to be a much lower level of corruption in this field.
Danijel Raspopović, orthopedic specialist at the Banjica Institute, says that besides allocating additional funds, the Ministry of Health needs to better organize the system.
"With just slightly better organization by the Ministry of Health, the situation could be much better than it is today."
While solutions are still pending, Vesna Banović finally got her surgery in her own city.
A month before this text was published, she received a call from the Banjica Institute.
"They called me from Banjica to come in for surgery. That was pure joy for me!"
On the other hand, Marina is still waiting for her hip surgery.
"They told me it can’t be sped up because the waiting lists are too long and there are very severe cases. I realized the core of the problem isn’t the Institute but state institutions."
After having surgery privately, Predrag Popović chose not to remove himself from the waiting list. He wanted to see how long it would take if he had waited for Banjica.
He was finally removed from the list – four years after not picking up his documentation when called to do so.
CINS analyzed data from waiting lists published on the website of the Republic Health Insurance Fund. We collected data daily between December 19, 2024 and July 18, 2025, and then analyzed them using a special tool we developed for this purpose, based on artificial intelligence. AI was also used to create some of the interactive elements on this page, all in line with CINS’s guidelines on AI use. The data and facts from the text were verified by an external fact-checker.
Journalist: Ivana Milosavljević
Editors: Vladimir Kostić, Dina Đorđević
Illustrations and photos: Zoran Miodrag, Milan Petrović, Envato
Camera: Milan Petrović
Infographics and website design: Vladimir Kostić, Zoran Miodrag
Production: Center for Investigative Journalism of Serbia (CINS)
September 2025
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