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Zagreb - Ombudswoman Tena Šimonović Einwalter warned on Thursday that in 2023 most of the complaints submitted to her office concerned the healthcare system, noting that citizens complain the most about the exercise of their rights to health, healthcare and health insurance.
Healthcare is the No. 1 area in terms of the number of complaints received last year, and 2023 was not the first year that that was so, Šimonović Einwalter said in Parliament during a discussion on her proposal for Sedina Dubravčić to be appointed her deputy.
Šimonović Einwalter's statement came as a response to SDP MP Martina Vlašić Iljkić's warning that for years most of the complaints submitted to the ombudswoman's office referred to healthcare, including the lack of primary healthcare staff. She said that the shortage of medical staff was most evident in family medicine, and that 147 physicians had left Croatia in 2023.
MPs supported the proposal that Dubravčić be appointed Deputy Ombudswoman, with opposition MPs warning that annual reports on the work of the Office of the Ombudswoman were regularly submitted late for discussion.
MP Gordan Bosanac (We Can!) warned that Parliament had still not discussed the ombudswoman's reports for 2022 and 2023, calling on Speaker Gordan Jandroković to put them on the agenda as soon as possible.
Jandroković said that the discussion on the 2022 report should have been held but that in the week in question the ombudswoman could not be present due to other obligations. As for the 2023 report, Jandroković said that he still had not received the government's opinion on the report.
"I expect the government's opinion on the 2023 report to be submitted to Parliament very soon and then we will hold a single debate on the 2022 and 2023 reports for all ombudspersons as well as on other reports that need to be discussed," he said, adding that he planned for the debates to be completed by the end of the current sitting or at the beginning of the next.
Sedina Dubravčić is a lawyer with 16 years of professional experience and currently works at the Office of the Ombudswoman, in its service for the protection of persons reporting irregularities.