Kosovska Mitrovica hospital performs first two hip implants

Orthopedic surgeons from KBC Bezanijska Kosa fitted the first two hip implants at the Clinical Hospital Center (KBC) Kosovska Mitrovica on Saturday, October 17, 2026. The operations were performed by a team led by Dr. Sladjan Timotijevic, head of orthopedics at the Belgrade hospital, with assistance from doctors in Kosovska Mitrovica. Until now, patients in northern Kosovo could not have this procedure in their own city.

Zlatan Elek, director of the Mitrovica KBC, told RTS that both patients are in stable condition. He reflected on the first operation of this kind at the institution like this:

“Yesterday was a historic day for our Clinical Hospital Center, for health care not only in Kosovska Mitrovica but across Kosovo and Metohija. Two patients were successfully operated on and received hip implants.”

How are the patients doing after surgery?

Elek said the patients had stable vital signs after the morning round on Sunday. He expected them to be moved to the orthopedics ward the same day, or on Monday at the latest. They will stay in two-bed rooms with a bathroom in the new orthopedics ward and continue their recovery in the physiatry ward. According to local media, that ward was fully renovated with funds from the Serbian government.

Elek also noted that the KBC has received an angiography suite. Patients who need that kind of urgent procedure previously had to travel to central Serbia. He announced that specialists from larger centers will come to work in Mitrovica:

“I expect that over the course of this year we will have specialists coming here from our largest medical centers, with whom we have excellent relations. Everything that was promised has been done, because our greatest concern and interest is fighting for the health of every patient of ours in Kosovo and Metohija.”

Who performed the surgery, and what does he say about conditions?

Timotijevic, who according to local media is originally from Kosovo, thanked the KBC management for inviting him to perform complex procedures. He assessed the hospital’s conditions this way:

“This is a complex operation. The conditions for such a complex operation are met here. They have the equipment, and they prepared the patients we operated on today adequately. They have equipment in the operating block that is adequate for this kind of surgical intervention, suitable implants, and the space on the ward is more than satisfactory, so it was a great honor and pleasure to help them today and to pass on some of my knowledge and experience. I have been doing this job for more than 30 years. I hope we will continue this cooperation for the common good of the people who rely on this hospital, so that the list of people waiting for this operation gets shorter and they receive the procedure in time.”

Deputy director Dr. Dragisa Milovic stressed that orthopedics has existed in Kosovska Mitrovica for more than 30 years, and that the wait for an operation like this lasted just as long. He added that Mitrovica orthopedists had previously trained at the Belgrade hospital:

“These are very difficult and delicate operations. In all the years orthopedics has existed here, more than 30, we waited for such an eminent expert to come and help, and before that our orthopedists were at Bezanijska Kosa and mastered this method.”

Milovic hopes for a next step. As he put it, that would be a knee implant, which would, in his words, complete the orthopedics story at the Mitrovica KBC.

How much was invested, and who paid?

Elek thanked three institutions that provided the money: the Ministry of Health, the Republic Health Insurance Fund and the Office for Kosovo and Metohija. The hips themselves cost 11,139,390 dinars, and the complete system needed to implant them another 10,850,920 dinars, for a total of 21,990,310 dinars. The director also said the start of operations had been announced specifically for October 17:

“To get to all of this, we made major investments. I take this opportunity to thank the Ministry of Health, the Republic Health Insurance Fund and the Office for KiM, who provided funds to purchase the hips in the amount of 11,139,390 dinars, as well as for the complete system without which this could not be implanted, in the amount of 10,850,920 dinars. We promised that this type of surgical intervention would start on October 17, and that from today KBC Kosovska Mitrovica joins the institutions that will take part in reducing the waiting list in Serbia for hip implants.”

Elek sees the operations as the result of cooperation with KBC Bezanijska Kosa, headed by director Marija Zdravkovic.

What about the waiting list?

According to Elek, speaking to RTS, 42 patients have been waiting for hip surgery so far, and he expects the next operations in about ten days. Milovic claims that patients from Kosovo and Metohija will no longer have to go to other centers:

“Our patients from the KiM area will no longer have to go to other centers such as Belgrade, Nis or Kragujevac for this kind of intervention. The waiting list will shrink. This is the best example and proof of how much the state of Serbia invests in these areas. The KBC is being rebuilt, to the delight of all of us who live here and of our patients.”

Serbia’s caretaker Health Minister Zlatibor Loncar, as reported by the Gorazdevac portal, called it a major step forward for the health system and for shortening waiting lists.

How does this fit into the election campaign?

The first operations took place eight days before October 25, the date of Serbia’s snap parliamentary elections. Zlatan Elek is not only the KBC director but also the president of the Serbian List. He recently confirmed publicly that he is a member of the Serbian Progressive Party and resigned his seat in the Kosovo assembly. In a pre-election debate on health care on Nova TV on October 9, he appeared as a representative of the “Aleksandar Vucic - United Serbia” list.

That same debate made the start of hip implants a point of dispute. According to the Gorazdevac portal, Elek said then that there are no waiting lists in any field at KBC Kosovska Mitrovica and that prosthesis implants had begun as early as September 17. It was not specified which prosthesis implants that statement referred to, and the first hip implants were not performed until October 17. Elek’s assessments of the state of the hospital were challenged by Jugoslav Gasic, a professor at the Faculty of Medicine, who represented the student list “Students Win” in the debate. Gasic claimed that some medical equipment from private practices is used to treat patients at the KBC, and that he himself procured part of the instruments for the ENT department’s operating room.

In his Sunday statement to RTS, Elek said 42 patients have been waiting for hip surgery so far. He expects the next operations in about ten days, which is to say after the election.