Anniversaries of the Serbian Medical Society, 1952: 80 years since the founding of the Society--first results and confrontations

The celebration of the 80th anniversary of the foundation of the Serbian Medical Association as an important jubilee "for all cultural and social life of our country", "the importance of which" we many not be able to apprehend yet, "falls in times that show to us all the complexity of social and political situation in the country". In that time the first results in the creation of a system of medical protection and the conception of new health institutions, begun after the WW II on the initiative of the Association. All this relates to tasks that the Association proclaimed in its "resolution" for the combat against basic problems of public health, and above all, infant mortality and tuberculosis, as well as other aims that have in the meantime been realised. One can, on the basis of the aforesaid, speak about this period as the most important in the history of the Serbian Medical Association. On the other hand, with the First Congress of Serbian Doctors, a wide ideological confrontation was initiated that, in the pursuit of particular political goals, and under the motto of "constructing the image of a people's doctor" dominated in the time of the jubilee. This culminated in the confrontation with some professors at the Faculty of Medicine in Belgrade. Without going into analysis of this campaign that progressed with "great support of responsible state administration and social instructions" and all this because "of the construction of the image of a people's doctor" one can, from a great temporal distance, say that everything that has been done is the fact that the Serbian Medical Association did not partake in the campaign. This positive fact in the history of our Association is so important because these happenings did not disturb the work of sections and branches of the Association. The Association and its members continued with their activity that in the next period gave important results in further construction of a medical system in the country. This created a basis for the final shape-up of the system itself--one of advanced health care systems in the world.