August 8, 2022 - On Sunday, August 7, an ambulance vehicle of the Vukovar Public Health Institute caught on fire on the Bršadin-Pačetin road near the village of Bobota. The crew managed to escape, saving over HRK100,000 worth of medical equipment. Thankfully, tere were no patients in the vehicle.

As RTL reports, on the Hitna Uživo 194 (Ambulance Live 194) Facebook page, they published a dramatic video of an ambulance engulfed in flames with explosions. On the video, you can hear: “Run, run, f*** it, it's not a joke!”.

The original video of the incident 

On the page they posted: “ZZHM (Instititute of Emergency Medicine) VUKOVAR-SRIJEM COUNTY! Returning from an intervention. An ambulance vehicle over 10 years old. They said it was in a good condition. So, gentlemen from the Government of the Republic of Croatia, how are your Audis doing? All going well? Thank God, they all saved themselves at the last minute. The media is free to use the link to the video”.

The video shows a burning vehicle, as well as explosions on the road near a corn field. Multiple items from the vehicle were thrown by the side of the road.

The firefighters of the Public Fire Department Vukovar confirmed that everything happened last night: “The accident happened last night and the fire was localized”. It occured around 20:30 on the Bršadin – Pačetin road.

RTL have unofficially learned that last night's drama took place on the road between Vukovar and Osijek near the village of Bobota. Allegedly, no patients were in the vehicle, and the vehicle in question was an ambulance.

The firefighters also posted a video on the Facebook page Vatrogasci 193 (Firefighters 193) of extinguishing the fire, which seems to have started to spread to the surrounding vegetation.

The Firefighters' Facebook video

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ZAGREB, 18 May 2022 - The Ministry of Health stated on Wednesday that it was taking steps for a solution to demands by striking non-emergency medical transportation drivers, adding that their strike was illegal because it affected the rights of numerous patients.

Ambulance drivers have been striking for three days and have said they would continue until their demands are met for their wages to be equalised throughout the country as now their wages can differ up to HRK 1,500 depending on which county employs them.

"The ministry and government are doing everything within the framework of financial abilities to resolve the status and financial problems of non-emergency medical transportation drivers and paramedics which dated back from the period of the government of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and their coalition partners 11 years ago. We believe that we will very quickly find a satisfactory solution to that issue," the ministry said in the press release.

Regarding the protest calling for wage indexes to be equalised in calculating wages based on job complexity, the ministry noted that it understands the justified demands, however, it cannot support an illegal strike that the unions organised contrary to regulations.

The ministry says that the strike has unjustifiably deprived numerous patients in the entire country of their right to medical transport which is of exceptional importance in their treatment and providing daily medical services.

About 400 non-emergency medical transportation drivers and paramedics in eight counties started their industrial action on Monday.

Unlike the ministry that claimed that the unfavourable status of ambulance drivers dates from the period of the SDP government, unionists told a press conference last week that the problem has existed since 2011 when the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) was in power and Darko Milinović served as the health minister.

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