ZAGREB, February 20, 2019 - The co-owner of a private hospital in which President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović was given a 20% discount on a preventive check-up said on Wednesday she was not extended preferential treatment because, under a management decision, all long-standing patients were entitled to discounts.
"All our so-called long-standing patients are entitled to that discount, whether they have been to the polyclinic or are long-standing patients of professor Dragan Schwarz," Miro Kovačić, co-owner of Radiochirurgia Polyclinic, told Hina. "The president didn't get anything more or less than others in that category."
The Conflict of Interest Commission today opened a case against the president because the discount exceeded 500 kuna, the maximum amount of a gift which, under the Conflict of Interest Act, a state official may receive.
Last Friday the president underwent a regular preventive check-up at Radiochirurgia in Sveta Nedjelja near Zagreb. The media reported that the check-up costs 7,700 kuna and that the president was given a 20% discount, paying 6,160 kuna.
Hospital director Dragan Schwarz said the president had been his patient for years now and that it was "normal" that patients undergoing frequent check-ups were given "certain discounts." He said he saw nothing contentious in this and that the president "wasn't extended any preferential treatment."
He said the public outcry over the fact that the president underwent a preventive check-up in a private hospital was unnecessary and that private hospitals were being brought into an unequal position in relation to public hospitals.
More news on the president can be found in the Politics section.
