Health care managers as a crucial component of health care workforce in Serbia.

The aim of the paper was to describe and analyse health services management in Serbia, commencing with present status and projecting, as accurately as possible, future changes over the next years, skills and required competencies of the health management workforce. The study was done as a part of Ministry of Health/EU funded Project "Preparation for Health Management Training Programme in Serbia" by a desk review of current and draft legislation, related projects in the health sector and relevant local and international literature; semi-structured interviews with key local and international stakeholders and a structural analysis of the health management sector. The results of the study have shown that there was a big gap in knowledge and skills regarding Health Management in Serbia and a true need for such type of education.