Croatia: death due to shortage of doctors

A 21-year-old man has died on the street in the Croatian city of Zaprešić after a rescue team made an unsuccessful attempt to revive him. The media see the fact that there was no doctor on the team as a symptom of lacking investment in the country's national healthcare system.

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Novi list (HR) /

Murderous false investments

The incident is a result of the wrong priorities being set, Novi list concludes:

“A young life lost in Zaprešić is just an alarm bell that is ringing loudly enough this time. But in the background there is the fact that this government prefers to spend money on new stadiums or new second-hand aircraft and official cars, while ambulances that are supposed to save lives are on the road without equipment or doctors. The inspectors' laconic justification that 'everything was according to the rules of the profession' is worse than inadequate. Because not only does it trivialise the incident, as if this wasn't about the death of a 21-year-old man, but worse still: it is an admission that it's normal to deploy an emergency team without doctors.”

Index.hr (HR) /

Return to the Middle Ages

The dire state of the healthcare system has been apparent for years, Index.hr chimes in:

“First we allowed the doctors to emigrate. 'No matter', said the majority. Then we saw on Facebook how long the waiting lists to see a medical specialist had become, sometimes reaching as far into the future as 2020. And now people are dying on the street. Without a doctor. As if we lived in the Middle Ages. ... If we have ten million kuna for the two limousines that are supposed to bring the drunken EU representatives from the airport to see [President] Kolinda [Grabar-Kitarović], then we also have the money for high-quality medical assistance. If we have money to hire a hundred new officials then we also have money for nurses who earn their living from the sweat of their brow.”