The director of the Covid hospital in Batajnica, Dr Tatjana Adzic Vukicevic, told Nova.rs that she welcomes the ministry's proposal to turn the facility into a palliative care hospital.

„Let them open a kindergarten, a nursing home or a student’s home, whatever, just so that this space doesn’t end up empty anymore,“ she says.

In the last two months, the number of patients in the covid hospital in Batajnica has not exceeded 35, while at the peak of the pandemic, it reached close to 1,000.

„This building is new, spacious, equipped, and practical. There is a parking lot with 700 spaces, and I don’t know how much longer they will keep the covid hospital here, where an average of 30 people a day lie. I can empty the hospital in five to seven days if we don’t have admissions every day,” she said.

“We are the only country in the region that does not have a hospital for palliative care, and that proposal of the ministry would really be the smartest and best solution for this area,“ she added.

She added that the building is large and can be used for many different purposes.

„Among the current staff in Batajnica, there is a great interest in staying here to work, because there are many people who are from Zemun, Batajnica, New Belgrade, gravitating to this side of the river. Young doctors even say that they would specialize in palliative medicine because we have a shortage of staff in that branch. If not a hospital, then the authorities should open a kindergarten, a nursing home or a student’s home, do anything, just use this much space so it doesn’t end up empty,“ she added.