Loncar on 20 Families' Letter, Meri Movement Replies
Serbia's caretaker health minister said on an N1 debate that everything went to inspectors and prosecutors. The Right to Life - Meri movement says he dodged the letter's demands.
Caretaker Health Minister Zlatibor Loncar was asked in a pre-election health debate on N1, held Thursday evening, why he never replied to the families who sent him an open letter. The “Right to Life - Meri” movement then said in a statement that the minister “has not answered the families for five months.”
According to N1, the letter was sent by 20 families who say their relatives were victims of medical errors. It states that they lost their lives after calls to emergency services, during treatment and in routine procedures.
What did Loncar say about the letter?
An N1 journalist asked the minister: “Why haven’t you replied to them at all?” Loncar answered:
“Everything has been handed to the inspectorate, everything has been handed to the prosecutor’s office. It is all being dealt with. I am neither a prosecutor nor a judge. Everything will be examined. Anyone who did anything wrong will answer for it. We have no doubts about that.”
The debate was moderated by journalist Sanja Sovrlic. Besides Loncar (Aleksandar Vucic - United Serbia list), the participants were Miroslav Andric (Student List), Vladimir Djukic (Ivica Dacic - Factor of Stability) and Dragan Delic (European Serbia).
What does the Meri movement object to?
The movement responded with a statement published by N1. It says the minister “tried to deceive the public” and “avoided addressing the specific demands” in the letter. According to the statement, the families are asking for:
- annulment of the disputed extraordinary expert reviews
- mandatory participation of families in inspections
- the right to see evidence and to submit their own
- independent fact-checking
- clear citation of the medical protocols
“So the families challenged precisely the way expert reviews are carried out, and the minister told the public that he had handed everything to the competent bodies,” the movement’s statement says.
The movement also raises a question it says has gone unanswered: if everything was handed to the competent authorities, why was a parliamentary question about the Health Ministry’s handling of the letter never answered? The closing part of the statement reads:
“Five months of silence, and then a few empty and misleading sentences in front of the cameras. This is exactly the pattern of institutional conduct the families have been pointing to for years. Instead of an answer, the case is passed along; instead of evidence, assurances; instead of accountability, endless promises. Most appalling of all, the minister offers as proof that the system works the very oversight mechanisms whose legality, objectivity and transparency the families call into question. That is not an answer to the open letter. It is an evasion of its substance.”
The minister does not have to be a judge or a prosecutor, the movement points out, but he cannot behave as though he bears no responsibility for the work of the ministry he leads.
What else came up in the health debate?
In the same program, Loncar disputed the figures on health workers leaving the country. The journalist cited data from the Union of Doctors and Pharmacists saying 6,000 doctors, nurses and technicians have left Serbia. The minister said the number was nowhere near that, and when asked how many had left, he replied:
“Over those 10 years, at most, if 1,000 doctors left, that is according to what we have in our records.”
About 29,000 people are on waiting lists, according to National Health Insurance Fund (RFZO) data cited by Andric. Loncar blamed blockades for the remaining lists, those for hip and knee replacements. Andric said the lists are in disarray because they include people who gave up, died or were registered more than once: “We have no data we can trust.”
Loncar also said that in 2012 there were 5,651 doctors in specialist training and that there are 9,152 today. He explained the shortage of specialists by an earlier ban on specializations. Delic recalled that in 2013 a decision was made banning the filling of vacant posts for doctors and all health workers at public-funded institutions, to which Loncar replied that a run of hirings without public competitions had to be stopped.
Djukic said there are no more waiting lists in oncology and that the number of linear accelerators is rising from 13 to 30, four of which are being installed. Andric presented the Student List’s plan as an integrated health information system showing who is on a waiting list and what they need.
