Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.21857/ydkx2cg7p9
Dubrovnik Hospital in World War One and the Post-War Period
Antun Car
orcid.org/0000-0001-5888-8434
; General Hospital Dubrovnik, Dubrovnik, Croatia
Abstract
Located at the periphery of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, close to the front lines, through the entire World War I Dubrovnik Hospital fulfilled its task in providing medical service to the population of the county of Dubrovnik and Kotorand its surroundings.
The hospital's service also extended to the soldiers if the two military health facilities in Dubrovnik, due to their overcapacity, could not provide the necessary treatment. This article addresses the circumstances in which the hospital operated during and after the war, and how the hospital management coped with various situations and challenges.
Data on Dubrovnik Hospital in the given period has been derived from diverse sources. Hospital material pertaining to medical case histories is filed in the register of hospitalisations in the fond HR-DADU-186, Opća bolnica Dubrovnik (Dubrovnik General
Hospital). An insight into the newspapers and the minutes of the Municipal Council of Dubrovnik for the period 1913-1921 has largely contributed to a fuller picture.
Hospital capacity did not change during the war years, 150 beds with two physicians, and an average of appoximately 1,200 to 1,500 patients per year. The two physicians were assisted by twenty-four nurses and a varying number of the supporting ward and domestic staff. Various infectious and non-infectious diseases were treated at the hospital, such as tuberculosis, typhus, Spanish flu, diphtheria, dysentery, trachoma, while at the infectious ward smallpox, measles and the spotted typhus fever were treated. Adverse general conditions—famine, cold weather conditions, restrictions and limitations—hampered the
medical efforts and rehabilitation as the hospital was forced to ration food and as a result produced its own food and soap, using the labour force of the war prisoners and soldiers. The end of war was marked by corruption and disorder, while the hospital's mechanical equipment and sanitary material was confiscated by the Serbian army. Due to difficult economic circumstances and poverty, the hospital staff was occasionally offered food at factory prices and provided with material seized by war requisition.
Keywords
Dubrovnik Hospital; Dubrovnik; World War I; famine; labour shortage; corruption
Hrčak ID:
337512
URI
Publication date:
5.11.2025.
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