Health Minister Rajko Ostojic on Saturday dismissed criticisms from the strongest opposition party, the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), saying that his predecessor Darko Milinovic left the national health system in disarray and that the HDZ was criticising him and the present government just to score cheap political points.
"Former Health Minister Milinovic left a huge debt, disorder and chaos with the waiting lists, and that's why we have launched an action plan to reduce the waiting lists, which starts on August 1, as agreed with patients' associations," Ostojic told Croatian Radio, commenting on an HDZ press conference held in the morning.
At the press conference, Darko Milinovic and Ante Corusic, head of the HDZ's Health Committee, accused the government of deceiving the citizens by falsely promising them a more effective and financially stable health system. Milinovic described Ostojic as "the worst health minister Croatia has ever had," criticising him, among other things, for shortages of medicines in hospitals.
"There is no shortage of medicines. When the HDZ speaks about it, it does so only for petty political reasons, given that some hospitals have not paid their debts for over a thousand days," Ostojic said.