Mašić: Save healthcare from tycoon lobbies led by SDA

SARAJEVO, (Patria) - The Medical Chamber of Sarajevo Canton will elect a new president tomorrow. Candidates are Professor Ismet Gavrankapetanović from the General Hospital „Prim. dr. Abdulah Nakaš“ and doc. dr. Zaim Jatić from the Cantonal Health Centers.

About 150 doctors and the Independent Trade Union of Doctors of Medicine and Dentistry have supported the candidacy of Dr. Gavrankapetanović. Unofficially, Dr. Jatić has the support of the General Director of the Clinical Center of the University of Sarajevo, Dr. Sebija Izetbegović.

Ahead of the Chamber's Electoral Assembly, doctors, delegates of tomorrow's Assembly, report strong pressure on them from the Clinical Center. They are being asked to support Dr. Jatić. It is expected that tomorrow's vote could be public, so that no delegate representing KCUS in the Chamber could secretly support Dr. Gavrankapetanović. 

The President of the SDP Cantonal Committee in Sarajevo, Damir Mašić, believes that it is devastating for the entire society that, as he said, the credibility and expertise of Professor Gavrankapetanović are being called into question for the sake of the interests of one political party.

„The blocking of work and the interruption of the session of the Sarajevo Canton Assembly, at the moment when a report on the operations of the Clinical Center of the University of Sarajevo was supposed to be presented to the public, confirms once again that the director of KCUS, Sebija Izetbegović, after taking over the leadership of SDA, also took over the management of the Sarajevo Canton Assembly“, said Mašić, as reported by Patria. 

„We call on the citizens of Sarajevo to together save our hospitals from sick ambitions and tycoon lobbies led by SDA“, he added. 

Transparency International in BiH (TI BiH) recently published an „Analysis of the case of a captured state in the health sector of Sarajevo Canton“, in which it states that healthcare in Sarajevo Canton has been placed under strict control of Dr. Sebija Izetbegović, a member of the Party of Democratic Action (SDA) and the wife of the party's president.

From Transparency International, they state that since Sebija Izetbegović was appointed director of the University Clinical Center Sarajevo, the three main pillars of the healthcare system of Sarajevo Canton have been placed under strict control of Dr. Izetbegović. „The three main pillars of the healthcare system of Sarajevo Canton – the University Clinical Center Sarajevo, the Faculty of Medicine of the State University, and the Medical Chamber of Sarajevo Canton – have been placed under strict control of Izetbegović, a prominent member of SDA“, the Transparency International analysis states.

„SDP BiH has a solution for healthcare reform tailored to all citizens, not only in Sarajevo Canton, but throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina. That reform means stopping saving on patients and people's health. Public healthcare should treat citizens, not make famous savings and profit off the health of citizens“, concluded Mašić.