The expert medical commission investigating the circumstances of reporter Vladimir Matijanic's death did not answer three key questions in the case, Doctor Mirando Mrsic told N1 on Thursday.

“Yesterday’s press conference did not provide answers to three key questions put by experts, (Matijanic’s) family and the public. Why wasn’t he hospitalised, why wasn’t he given a proper examination, and why were the necessary tests not run,” Mrsic said in an interview with N1.

According to the findings of the Health Ministry’s expert commission investigating the case, there were no professional omissions on the part of medical workers involved in the case. Matijanic, who suffered from a number of underlying conditions, died on 5 August as a consequence of coronavirus infection.

Mrsic, who served as Labour and Pension System Minister in the government led by Zoran Milanovic, believes yesterday’s press conference is an attempt by Health Minister Vili Beros to obfuscate the case and sweep it under the carpet.

“The moment you enter a hospital, you have the right to an ECG and a lung X-ray test. If that had been done, the situation would have been completely different and Matijanic would have had a chance to fight and try to survive COVID and the severe complications,” Mrsic said.

He added that he believed that the commission’s members looked embarrassed at the news conference because they had to say “things that are contrary to ethics and professional competence” as well as the primary duty of doctors – to help the patient.

“The statement that (Matijanic) should have come to the hospital, as if he were responsible for his own death, was the lowest point. I think the public will not buy it and that nobody has any doubt that the system was wrong,” Mrsic said, adding that “the truth will come to light sooner or later.”

In a comment on telephone conversations between Matijanic and medical workers that were published after the reporter’s death, Mrsic said that “telephone medicine, which is increasingly present in Croatia, won’t bring anything good.”