Istria has received its first fully equipped mobile medical clinic, one of 33 purchased for all 20 Croatian regions through an investment of more than €5.3 million from the National Recovery and Resilience Plan.
The clinic was presented during a visit by Minister of Health Associate Professor Irena Hrstić, PhD, who, together with Deputy County Prefect Gordana Antić and Acting Director of the Istrian Health Centres Petar Benazić, also visited tourist medical clinics in Poreč and Pula and spoke with their teams.
I always like to emphasise that we have reached a stage in the development of healthcare where patients no longer have to travel towards the healthcare system; instead, the system comes to their doorstep. Together with tourist medical clinics, which are an important part of healthcare security during every tourist season, we are sending the same message: healthcare is coming even closer to people. This is the result of the effective use of European funds and the largest investment cycle in the history of Croatian healthcare, worth €3.2 billion, launched by the Government and extending from the largest hospitals to the smallest communities
Associate Professor Irena Hrstić, Minister of Health
The mobile team consists of a doctor and a nurse who, according to a weekly schedule, visit remote, rural and hard-to-reach communities, conducting examinations, prescribing treatment and monitoring patients with chronic conditions.
The Istrian mobile clinic, worth more than €160,000, brings this model of healthcare to the eastern coast of the peninsula, covering the area from Nedešćina through Koromačno and Potpićan to Rabac. This makes healthcare accessible to both local residents and visitors during the tourist season.
The mobile medical clinic is an additional element of the record-breaking summer healthcare network for tourists. The 2026 plan covers 62 locations across 11 counties, compared with 40 locations in 2025 and 37 in 2024.
By July, 50 locations were already operating, including five in Istria County. In addition to Poreč, Pula, Rovinj and Umag, where teams also operated last season, a new tourist medical clinic has opened in Labin.
Higher demand has already been recorded from the first days of operation. By 7 July, tourist medical clinics had provided 683 services to tourists in Poreč and 476 in Pula.
As of this year, the work of young doctors in tourist medical clinics is also given additional consideration when they apply for specialist training programmes.
Alongside organisational support, the programme also receives financial support. Through small-value grants, the Ministry of Health co-finances equipment and the renovation and adaptation of premises, providing more than €620,000 in total over the past three years. Part of this year’s programme was allocated to Istria, with almost €20,000 approved for the Istrian Health Centres for this purpose.
The growing demand for these services is reflected in the figures. Between April and August 2025, 16.2 million tourists stayed in nine regions with additional healthcare teams and sought medical assistance more than 120,000 times.
Tourist medical clinics handled more than 15,200 of these visits, directly reducing the pressure on family medicine practices and emergency services in the busiest coastal areas.
Istria was once again at the top of the list. Last year, the county welcomed 4.6 million tourists and recorded 19,536 healthcare interventions, of which 5,740 took place in tourist medical clinics — the highest number in Croatia.
The Croatian Health Insurance Fund (HZZO) has provided the additional teams with access to CEZIH, Croatia’s central healthcare information system. This allows doctors to issue prescriptions and referrals on site for urgent healthcare services to HZZO-insured patients, tourists from EU countries holding a European Health Insurance Card, and insured persons from countries with which Croatia has social security agreements.
