Development of the healthcare services in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia of 1918. to 1941.

In the period between the two world wars a dynamic although somewhat slower development of health services, including organized emergency services, continued. This period was particularly important because of the establishment and construction of health centers, health cooperatives and health services. The above health care facilities mostly met the basic needs of the population in terms of healthcare. Conflicts of different interests in the multinational Kingdom of Yugoslavia were the obstructing factor in passing valid legal legislations in the field of population healthcare, thus it was not surprising that the National Health Care Funding Act was ratified as late as March 1939. The development of emergency medical services was especially dynamic after the establishment of Emergency Medical Service (EMS) in 1927. over the next few years until the collapse of April 1941, EMS, in terms of organization, staff and equipment, was capable of performing complex and difficult tasks in rescuing critically ill patients and seriously injured citizens, both in everyday life and under exceptional, even war conditions. Therefore, we can conclude that EMS in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia was at the level of the developed European countries.