Bosnia Federation's Elderly Homes Face Staff Shortages and Weak Oversight

Three public elderly-care homes in Bosnia and Herzegovina's Federation faced shortages of essential care staff, unsuitable arrangements for some residents with dementia and inconsistent professional oversight, a performance audit released on 26 October 2026 found. The review covered three homes and their responsible ministries, not every institution nationwide.

The Federation Audit Office examined 2023–2025 activities at the Gerontological Centre in Sarajevo, the elderly-care centre in Mostar and the Pensioners' Home in Tuzla, together with the relevant cantonal social-affairs ministries. Its signed 26 October statement, reference 04-04-4-3634/26, says the ministries had not prepared adequate strategic guidance and that regulations and publicly accessible registers of care homes were incomplete.

The auditors reported shortages in some healthcare roles, especially carers and physiotherapists. Staff numbers and qualifications had not kept pace with residents' growing need for intensive care and constant supervision. Long-term sick leave and night-shift arrangements made the problem harder to manage. The review also identified inadequate physical, organisational and therapeutic conditions for people with dementia.

Although the homes generally provided basic accommodation and care, auditors found weaknesses in nutritional monitoring and complaint handling. Professional supervision was not conducted regularly or consistently. Some responsible ministries did not conduct it at all, while others failed to assess care quality comprehensively. The auditors warned that shortcomings could consequently go undetected and uncorrected.

A detailed 1 November review by Bosnian outlet Fokus reported three staff assigned to night nursing and healthcare duties at Sarajevo's centre, compared with 341 residents in 2025, 285 dependent on assistance. That comparison does not establish how many people worked elsewhere in the building or that every resident required simultaneous treatment. Fokus also described recruitment activity in Sarajevo during 2024–2026 and management explanations citing limited funding and increasingly complex care needs.

The audit comes after a separate 21 September statement by Bosnia's human-rights ombudsmen, who reported inconsistent regulation, registration and supervision of residential elder care. Their preliminary research, supported by the United Nations Population Fund, particularly raised concern about oversight of unregistered private facilities in Tuzla Canton. The ombudsmen called for coordinated official action. Their findings are independent of the Federation auditors' six-institution review and cannot be used as if they measured the same sample.

The combined records point to significant regulatory and service-delivery questions, but they do not prove criminal misconduct, establish responsibility for an individual injury or show that every reported staffing gap remained unchanged after the review period. The public audit statement does not itself establish a completed corrective programme.

The next verifiable developments will be the cantonal ministries' formal responses, staffing and inspection records, implementation of standards for dementia care and the treatment of complaints. Any later TFNOS follow-up should identify the specific new document or action rather than repeat these October findings.