The Ombudswoman of the Republic of Croatia, Tena Simonovic-Einwalter, warned on Thursday that in 2023 most of the complaints submitted to her office were about the healthcare system. She noted that citizens complain most about the exercise of their rights to health, health care and health insurance.

Healthcare is the No. 1 area when it comes to the number of complaints received last year, and 2023 was not the first year that this was the case, Simonovic’s deputy in Parliament said during a discussion on her proposal to appoint Sedina Dubravcic as her deputy.

Simonovic-Einwalter was responding to SDP MP Martina Vlasic-Iljkic’s warning that most of the complaints submitted to the Ombudswoman for years have been about healthcare, including the lack of medical staff in primary care. She said that the shortage of medical staff was most evident in family medicine and that 147 doctors had left Croatia in 2023.

The MPs supported the proposal to appoint Dubravcic as deputy ombudswoman. Opposition MPs warned that the annual reports on the ombudswoman’s work are regularly submitted too late for discussion.

Ombudswoman’s reports for 2022 and 2023 not yet discussed in Parliament

MP Gordan Bosanac (Mozemo party) pointed out that the Parliament has still not discussed the Ombudswoman’s reports for 2022 and 2023 and called on the Speaker of the Parliament Gordan Jandrokovic to put them on the agenda as soon as possible.

Jandrokovic said that the discussion on the 2022 report should have taken place, but that the Ombudswoman could not be present during the week in question due to other commitments. As for the 2023 report, Jandrokovic said that he had still not received the government’s statement on this report.

“I expect that the government’s statement on the 2023 report will be submitted to Parliament very soon and then we will hold a single debate on the 2022 and 2023 reports for all ombudspersons, as well as on other reports that need to be discussed,” he said, adding that he planned to finalise the debates by the end of the current session or at the beginning of the next one.

Sedina Dubravcic is a lawyer with 16 years of professional experience and currently works in the Office of the Ombudswoman, in its service for the protection of persons who report irregularities.