As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, the Croatian Health Ministry recently welcomed the move of the management of KBC Osijek, which warned its unvaccinated employees in a letter about the possibility of paying compensation to patients who become infected during their hospital stay.
The letter warns the employees of KBC Osijek about the possibility of paying compensation if a patient becomes infected in the hospital and decides to sue the institution. In the letter, the management states the possibility that, if this happens, the hospital will be able to seek compensation from unvaccinated staff members.
The Croatian Health Ministry estimates that the management of KBC Osijek, as part of its competencies and responsibilities for the work of the hospital, “timely and properly informed its employees about the need to raise the level of individual and collective protection against coronavirus” and accordingly increase overall patient safety.
“It’s clear from the letter that the management of KBC Osijek is transmitting information to all of its employees about the existence of civil lawsuits of persons alleging that their family members were infected with coronavirus when they were receiving hospital treatment (such as in the KBC Zagreb case) and that they consider the hospital responsible for the contaction of the infection, and as such the employees of the institution as a source, ie vectors of the infection,” stated the Croatian Health Ministry.
It referred to a claim for compensation, more precisely a settlement with the hospital due to the death of an 84-year-old woman from the novel coronavirus, who the family believes was infected while being treated in a medical institution. According to Jutarnji list, the family demanded compensation of 632,000 kuna from KBC Zagreb.
The Croatian Health Ministry considers that lawsuits with high compensation claims, based on the argument that the hospital, ie its employees, didn’t take all available measures to protect patients from contracting the infection, prompted the management of KBC Osijek to remind its employees that timely vaccination means taking the available protection from infection and the transmission of that same infection to patients, including adherence to all of the prescribed epidemiological measures.
Over recent days, KBC Osijek has stated that they aren’t forcing any of their employees to be vaccinated, emphasising that it is still their duty to warn their employees about responsible behaviour and what may happen should they choose to refuse the vaccine.
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