Students Add Sixth Demand: Accountability for Unauthorized Entry Into ICU

Zlatibor Loncar (BETAPHOTO/MILAN OBRADOVIC)

The students occupying universities and university schools in Serbia said on April 7 that they were adding a sixth item to their demands -- accountability for the unauthorized entry by physical persons and journalists into an intensive care unit at the University Clinic Center of Serbia housing patients injured during a deadly fire in North Macedonia.

The demand refers to a March 17 visit by Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and outgoing Minister of Health Zlatibor Loncar accompanied by a large number of media representatives to casualties of a March 16 nightclub fire in Kocani, North Macedonia, who were admitted into the University Clinic Center.

A post on the student protest Instagram account demands the urgent mounting of procedures to determine the accountability of and relieve of duty the director of the University Clinic Center, the director of the Emergency Center and the chief of intensive care for "allowing the unauthorized entry of physical persons and journalists into the intensive care unit of the [University Clinic Center] without protective gear and while recording the patients, jeopardizing their health, privacy and dignity."

The demand includes the mounting of misdemeanor proceedings against the health care institution, the responsible persons at the institution and the health care workers who violated their obligation to keep especially sensitive personal patient information confidential, an extraordinary inspection of the Emergency Center and the public release of reports on the determined injuries and recommendations, in accordance with the Law on inspections and while following all personal data protection protocols.

The students sent the demand about the unauthorized visit to the Serbian commissioner for information of public importance and personal data protection, the ombudsman and the head of the Ethics Committee of the University Clinic Center.