Reacting to an alleged lawsuit announced by the Clinical Hospital Centre (KBC) in Split against MP Ivana Ninčević Lesandrić of the MOST party, MP Arsen Bauk of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) called on Monday on Parliament Speaker Gordan Jandroković to protect parliamentary deputies from harassment by state institutions.
In the meantime, KBC Split issued a press release denying that it was suing the MP for defamation over the statement she had made in parliament that she had undergone curettage at that hospital without anaesthesia.
"It is scandalous that a state institution is planning to sue an MP for defamation for something that was said in parliament," Bauk said citing the Constitution under which a parliamentary deputy cannot be held criminally liable for expressing an opinion or voting in parliament. "If an institution founded by the state, and KBC Split is such an institution, does not know the Constitution, then at least the Health Ministry, which appointed the hospital's steering committee, should have warned them about it. If they fail to do so, I expect you Mr Parliament Speaker to protect MPs from being harassed by stated institutions for something they said in parliament," Bauk said, calling on Jandroković to warn KBC Split that its actions were unconstitutional.
Večernji List daily reported on Monday, citing unofficial sources, that the Split hospital was planning to sue Ninčević Lesandrić for defamation because she said in parliament that she was traumatized by the curettage procedure she had at that hospital without anaesthesia.
Acting KBC Split director Julija Meštrović told Hina this was not true. "This simply is not true...such claims are malicious and mean," Meštrović told Hina.
Earlier this month, Ninčević Lesandić described her personal experience at the KBC Split after suffering a miscarriage, saying that curettage had been performed on her without anaesthesia. Her statement opened Pandora's box about the treatment of women in many Croatian hospitals.
Soon after Ninčević Lesandrić went public with her experience, the head of the Clinic for Women's Diseases at the Clinical Hospital Centre (KBC) in Split, Deni Karelović, denied her claims that she had undergone curettage at the KBC Split without anaesthesia. "This specific case happened in February when this woman suffered a miscarriage in the seventh week of pregnancy. It is not true that curettage was performed, but vacuum aspiration," Karelović told Hina, adding that the procedure was state-of-the-art treatment and that it was very brief.
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