Former Health Minister Sinisa Varga was a guest on N1’s Novi Dan programme on Tuesday morning, where he commented on the organisation of emergency health services in Croatia.

On Monday, the Health Ministry sent a health inspection to look into the organisation of emergency medical service in the central Croatian town of Zapresic, where a 22-year-old man died in the street on Sunday afternoon because only a medical technician and a nurse were present in the ambulance that was called for him, and witnesses on the scene said there were no defibrillators in the vehicle either.

How do you comment on the death of a 22-year-old in Zapresic? Who is responsible?

All I know came from the media. The young man died so quickly. It appears he had suffered from severe asthma and he had an episode. It’s questionable whether a doctor could have saved him… a health inspection will determine that.

Are there enough emergency teams?

When I was Health Minister, in 2011, we saw there was a problem in the way emergency service was organised, we recognised there was a lack of educated employees and not enough teams. We founded an expert panel who put together a proposal and concluded it was necessary to provide training for nurses and medical technicians, as well as double our capacities in order to reach EU standard and improve survival rates which are, at this point, far below the EU average.

Why is that so?

Because the distance of teams from the places of accidents is simply to big, but the problem is also the training and number of employees. In Zapresic, the distance was short, but what happened was the nurse and medical technician were in the ambulance, and they did not have the necessary skills, nor was their vehicle equipped to deal with cases like that one.

We all have these stories, in my family a doctor misdiagnosed a heart attack and the person died. He also prescribed the wrong medicine. I’m not only speaking of the speed of arrival – these people need to have the necessary skills to do the work. Most of ER doctors in Croatia are young people waiting for specialisation, which is good practice but they don’t have enough experience on the ground. We proposed training for nurses and technicians so that the person could be brought to the ER within the so-called golden hour.

Do you think that your ideas for a health reform were realised?

The reform began in 2011, we inherited it from the previous Croatian Democratic Union government, and then everything stopped until 2016. They turned everything upside down. They cut down on the number of teams on the ground, now we don’t have enough of them, they stopped talking about the helicopter emergency medical services. Nothing was done to reform the health sector in two years.

Should Health Minister (Milan) Kujundzic resign over the case in Zapresic? Would you do that if you were in his position?

I would consider resigning if absolutely nothing had been done, I would consider myself responsible. Minister Kujundzic keeps repeating that the system is fine and everything is done by the rules, while young people, unfortunately, are dying.

Should he resign?

That is up to him and his conscience. He needs to make that call. When the Prime Minister says the minister is not doing a good job, then a resignation will follow. The moral responsibility lies on the minister.

Do you support the proposal to increase taxes on tobacco and alcohol by 50 percent? Minister Kujundzic said that money would go towards the health system.

When it comes to preventing the bad habit of smoking, there are two efficient measures: increasing prices or reducing availability. Countries that did this 20-30 years ago, like USA or Canada, now have under 10 percent smokers in their population. In Croatia, 34 percent people are smokers. A lot of our young people smoke, the girls are surpassing boys, because young people think it is cool. The prices are too low, and not enough is said on the harmful effects. This is something we have to work on, regardless of party affiliation, for our young people and ourselves. I would absolutely support that step.

Follow N1 via mobile apps for Android | iPhone/iPad | Windows| and social media on Twitter | Facebook.