ZAGREB, August 17, 2018 - Health Minister Milan Kujundžić said on Thursday that an inspection the ministry conducted into the recent death of 21-year-old Matteo Ružić had shown that the emergency service system had worked in this case and that everything was done in line with Croatian regulations and standards.
Death evidently occurred very quickly, it was a sudden death of an asthma patient and an autopsy will reveal if there was another underlying illness, the minister said at a press conference, once again extending his condolences to the family.
Earlier today, Kujundžić met with Prime Minister Andrej Plenković, informing him in detail about the inspection, government spokesman Marko Milić told Hina.
Ružić died in a street of Zaprešić, a town west of Zagreb, on Sunday despite first aid provided by an ambulance team. The death elicited strong reactions by the public and the opposition, insisting that the first aid system has failed given that the ambulance team did not include a doctor.
Kujundžić said the emergency medical service system should be changed and that over the past year the ministry had been working on changes to increase the powers and bolster the education of nurses and emergency medical technicians on the model of European countries.
"On the one hand, we are aware there are never enough teams that will urgently go out and save lives, while on the other, we are aware the system needs to be changed and adjusted to the world. A majority of developed countries have no physician in emergency care or have very few," he said on Croatian Television.
He said Croatia was among the countries in the EU with the highest number of physicians in emergency medicine per capita.
He said a paramedic system was being prepared for licensed people who went out in the field and did in emergency situations what a physician would do. He added, however, that there was certain resistance to this from the Medical Chamber and nurses.
As for the lack of physicians in small towns and on islands, Kujundžić said the problem of providing emergency care to island patients was being dealt with and that an EU tender was being prepared for the purchase of six boats.
