Flis quit as head of Maribor's main hospital via a video. No questions allowed.

Vojko Flis, director general of the University Medical Centre (UKC) Maribor, announced on Monday, 5 October, that he was stepping down. The announcement did not come at a press conference but in a pre-recorded video, which the hospital sent to the media through its public relations office. It was not possible to put any further questions to the director.

As his reason he cited the situation in the emergency centre, where, of thirty-nine emergency medicine specialists, more than thirty percent work only part-time.

"The former head came with a request that we do it this way so that these doctors would not leave, and in good faith that work in the emergency centre in Maribor would run the way it is supposed to, I gave in. I allowed such a large share of them to be employed part-time, which of course makes good organisation of work in the emergency centre impossible. I am responsible for this, I take this responsibility seriously, and therefore, as director of the University Medical Centre Maribor, I am resigning." (translated)

So he took responsibility for a decision that, by his own account, someone else proposed years ago, and he resigned over it. He will carry out day-to-day duties until new management is appointed.

Flis's resignation is no surprise. Less than two weeks earlier, on 24 September, Gregor Prosen stepped down as head of the emergency centre. He did not publicly explain his reasons, but according to Večer's reporting, it was a dispute over which doctors, besides emergency specialists, should take part in the work of the emergency department.

"I have always understood leading this institution as a great responsibility and as a special trust, duty and honour. A leadership post is temporary, while the institution remains. And it is the institution that must always matter more than the individual." (translated)

Prosen's resignation was triggered by an open letter from eighteen specialists of the Maribor emergency centre, who warned of a staffing shortage and of an attitude from management that, by their own account, they experienced as belittling. Doctors of the emergency centre at the Novo Mesto general hospital later also expressed their support.

This was not the only crisis of Flis's current term this year. In May, seven interventional radiologists of UKC Maribor, among them the then head Jernej Lučev, collectively handed in their resignations after more than a year of unsuccessful pay negotiations. Their demands included the resignation of Flis and of medical director Nataša Marčun Varda. The Minister of Health had to resolve the dispute personally, and after his intervention the radiologists stayed at UKC Maribor.

Changes at the top of Slovenian healthcare are happening elsewhere too. In September, the board of the institution dismissed Marko Jug as director general of UKC Ljubljana, and the clinical centre is now led by acting director Tomaž Erjavec. Sources name Flis's predecessor Anton Crnjac as the most likely successor in Maribor. He is considered a candidate close to the SDS.

Flis already led UKC Maribor between 2017 and 2021. In 2022 he ran for mayor of Maribor as a candidate of the Svoboda movement, and he returned to head the hospital in October 2023. Besides major projects, his second term was also marked by disputes with employees and a court finding of a breach of public procurement rules in purchases of medical supplies worth more than €1.8 million.