ZAGREB, September 28, 2018 – Opposition parties on Friday put forward a no-confidence motion against Health Minister Milan Kujundžić, after they had collected 31 signatures of lawmakers, as required under the procedure.
Representatives of several opposition parties held a news conference today to recall their initiative “52 reasons why Kujundžić can no longer be health minister”. The motion was signed by MPs from the Social Democratic Party (SDP), MOST party, Croatian Peasants’ Party (HSS) and the Živi ZId party.
“In the past two years, Minister Kujundžić has failed to do so much and now the health system is at a much lower level than when he stepped into office,” MOST MP Ines Strenja Linić said.
She accuses Kujundžić of failing to launch any reform or to organise an emergency or ship ambulance service. He has failed to adopt a national anti-cancer plan or a national hospital development plan, Strenja-Linić said.
SDP MP Željko Jovanović added the public healthcare is supposed to be comprehensive and equally accessible to everyone, claiming that the minister hasn’t done anything to improve the health system. Jovanović said that life expectancy in Croatia is shorter than in the rest of Europe and it is decreasing, while waiting lists, which the minister promised to shorten, have become even longer.
MP Branimir Bunjac of the Živi Zid too said that the minister hadn’t done anything during his term in office and that mortality in cancer patients was on the rise in Croatia and now it was among the top 10 countries in the world for mortality.
“The health ministry’s budget amounts to 11 billion kuna while the Croatian Health Insurance Fund budget is 24 billion kuna. We are paying supplementary health insurance yet the debt is growing. And instead of resolving this, they are increasing health contribution without any guarantee that they will settle the debts,” Bunjac underscored.
