Budva comes alive at a special pace in summer – a city with around 27,000 residents throughout the year becomes a place where tens of thousands of tourists stay every day. Such an intense pace of life also brings additional demands for all city services, particularly the healthcare system, which must be ready to provide fast and high-quality support. This is precisely why the improved capacities of the microbiology laboratory at the Public Health Centre Budva are particularly important – they enable healthcare workers to work more efficiently and provide better-quality services to citizens and visitors.
The microbiology laboratory in Budva has been provided with modern working conditions as part of the EU project “Adaptation and Equipping of 9 Microbiology Laboratories in Montenegro”, with a total value of €2.1 million. Around €300,000 was invested in the renovation and equipping of the premises at the Budva Public Health Centre.
“This space you see has been completely renovated and equipped by the European Union. The space was old, it leaked, and the rooms were not adequate for a microbiology laboratory. Given that microbiology has existed at the Budva Public Health Centre for 40 years, with this renovation we have, for the first time, obtained a proper laboratory space for processing our citizens’ test results,” says Dr Svjetlana Mandić, who works in the renovated premises with four other laboratory technicians.
In addition to renovating the premises, the necessary equipment was also procured. One of the most significant acquisitions was a laminar flow cabinet, a device that enables work under controlled, sterile conditions and reduces the possibility of sample contamination. For laboratory technician Ivana Delić, this device has become part of her daily routine.
“Every day when I come to work, I use this device, which has enabled us to work more efficiently and quickly, in a completely sterile environment. We now have significantly better working conditions,” Delić explains.
In addition to the laminar flow cabinet, the laboratory also received other devices that have improved various stages of the work – from the preparation of materials and laboratory equipment to the storage of samples.
“We received a laboratory glassware washing machine, a freezer operating at minus 20 degrees Celsius, as well as equipment for preparing culture media. All of this shortens the preparation time and enables a faster workflow,” says Dr Mandić.
The direct impact of the laboratory’s improvement on its working capacity is also demonstrated by the increase in the number of services provided by the department. While in 2022 the microbiology laboratory processed around 25,000 services, two years after the renovation that number had risen to around 30,000. The modernisation of the laboratory has not only improved the premises and equipment, but also the daily work of healthcare professionals and the quality of healthcare for the citizens and visitors of Budva.