Health cooperatives - a forgotten treasure

Abstract

The establishment of health cooperatives is the milestone in the development of the health system in the Kingdom of SCS and later in Yugoslavia. Healthcare cooperatives were applied for the first time in our area with joint efforts of the Ministry of National Health, national movements and International Organizations, and above all the United States Mission to help the Serbian people. The heavy public health image of the people after the First World War initiated healthcare cooperatives. Numerous obstacles were in the path of establishment and development of health cooperatives. However, due to good organization, mutual coordination of all important agents and also solidarity of the cooperative spirit, these problems were surpassed. The positive role of health cooperatives can best be seen in comparing the results of public health problems after the World War I and in the period before the Second World War, as shown in the paper. The first health cooperatives were established in 1922, and until the beginning of the Second World War, their number had grown, as well as the number of cooperatives and beneficiaries of services provided by health cooperatives. One of the most significant obstacles in the establishment and operation of health cooperatives is the financial nature, but also the problems of the uneducated population and numerous ?inherited? problems in the national health after the previous wars. However, by means of good work, cooperatives has been saving and every year they have more and more money reinvested in the desire to improve their position and provide better health care. The role of a physician has changed from a passive one ?waiting? at an outpatient clinic for the patients to be examined to active one in which a cooperative doctor travels to the patients? locations with his team. This approach has strengthened prevention, reduced the number of people infected with infectious and other diseases and influenced the education of the population, which was prone to illiterate and poor educational status. The ?spirit? of cooperatives was strong and it was also one of the reasons for the great success of healthcare cooperatives. After initial success, experts from around the world - from Japan, China, India and USA, Romania, Bulgaria, Poland, France were interested in transferring knowledge about the development of this innovative movement. Numerous healthcare cooperatives in the world have been created just by the model that our experts have developed. This global importance should be emphasized and new models of health care cooperatives are worth exploring further.