The Dubrava University Hospital was completed and started operating in May 1988, but its history is much longer. The first written traces of the existence of two military hospitals in the Neudorf settlement, on the site of today’s Nova Ves 16, date back to 1791, when the Zagreb Military Hospital was founded from the military hospitals of the Zagreb garrisons.
The development of the hospital took place under different historical circumstances, and its employees ‘ achievements have established the status of this highly specialized clinical institution as the leading medical institution in the Republic of Croatia and the region.
According to Ivo Vučković, the author of the collection of essays “The History of the Dubrava University Hospital 1781 – 1991”, the history of the hospital can be divided into four periods in terms of its purpose and professional level:
- 1781 – 1947 – military medical period
- 1948 – 1990 – development of the military hospital into a modern general hospital.
In 1948, for the first time in the hospital’s history, the admission and treatment of civilians was permitted (20% of the hospital’s capacity), and in 1988 the hospital moved to a newly constructed bulding in Dubrava. - 1991 – the hospital was taken over from the Yugoslav People’s Army
- 1992 – the period of the general civilian hospital and then the university hospital.
The Dubrava University Hospital played a special role during the Croatian War of Independence when more than 2,000 seriously wounded were treated in this hospital, and more than 60 mobile surgical teams were sent to the battlefields.
The recent events caused by the COVID-19 pandemic have confirmed the readiness of the Dubrava University Hospital to provide the highest level of medical care to all patients in the most critical situations. Based on the Decision of the Ministry of Health of March 19, 2020, the Primary Respiratory Intensive Care Center for the treatment of patients suffering from the disease COVID-19 caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus was established here.
This period required daily adjustments to the new situation, particularly with regard to the mobilization of technical, spatial, and human capacities. During this period, the medical staff of the Dubrava University Hospital, together with the medical staff from other healthcare facilities, was involved in the treatment of more than 9,500 patients with COVID-19
Numerous procedures, interventions and the latest treatment methods were applied at the Dubrava University Hospital for the first time in the Republic of Croatia.
We have highlighted the most important achievements and events in the development of our hospital.