Pressure on delegates ahead of the Medical Chamber's electoral assembly

(Patria) - The Medical Chamber of Sarajevo Canton elects a new president tomorrow. The candidates are Professor Ismet Gavrankapetanović from the General Hospital „Prim. dr. Abdulah Nakaš“ and doc. dr. Zaim Jatić from the Public Institution Domovi zdravlja.

Around 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.

On the eve 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. Some delegates from KCUS were also summoned today for a meeting with Dr. Enra Suljić, Director of the Institute for Scientific Research and Development and one of the first associates of Dr. Izetbegović.

„That would be illegal. The Statute of the Medical Chamber only recognizes secret voting“, Prim. dr. Fahrudin Kulenović, former president of the Medical Chamber of Sarajevo Canton, tells Patria.

„Politics unlawfully took over the Medical Chamber from doctors in early 2017. I am proving exactly that in court“, added Kulenović, explaining that the Assembly of the Medical Chamber in January last year, when pediatrician from the Clinical Center Dr. Raho Spahović was elected its president, was illegal, "because people who were not even members of the Chamber decided on the fate of the Chamber."

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.

Transparency International states 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 SDA member", the Transparency International analysis states.

Biographies of the candidates

Dr. Zaim Jatić is a specialist in family medicine. He is employed at the Domovi zdravlja of Sarajevo Canton. He works at the Dom zdravlja in Vrazova. He is the president of the Association of Family Medicine of Sarajevo Canton.

Professor Gavrankapetanović is a distinguished orthopedist. He graduated from the Faculty of Medicine in Sarajevo in 1986. He is a member of numerous domestic and international medical associations, including the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons, a member of the Royal College of Surgeons of London, the British Orthopedic Association, the European Society for Sports Traumatology, and a member of the British Elbow and Shoulder Society... He is currently employed at the General Hospital „Prim. dr. Abdulah Nakaš“ in Sarajevo.