The Social Democratic Party (SDP) bench in the Croatian parliament on Thursday accused Health Minister Darko Milinovic of misinforming the public and using untruths to defend his bad moves, saying the latest one was manipulation with data on the number of children born as a result of medically assisted conception after the entry into force of the new law on that matter.
Speaking to reporters in parliament, Milanka Opacic of the SDP said that participants in a congress at the Plitvice Lakes national park last weekend heard that since the entry into force of the new law on medically assisted conception there had been 659 medically assisted pregnancies in all Croatian clinics, as against the same period before the entry into force of the law, when there were 752 such pregnancies.
She added that Milanovic was trying to conceal the data by presenting different data at three forums, one of which was the Plitvice congress. According to data presented by Milinovic, there were 578 medically assisted pregnancies before the entry into force of the new law against 599 since its entry into force.
Opacic wondered why, if the current law was as good as the minister was claiming it was, Milinovic was considering allowing the fertilisation of more egg cells and the freezing of embryos, which is not allowed under the existing law.
Another SDP official, Mirando Mrsic, said that Milinovic was introducing new measures only to withdraw them due to public pressure.
He recalled the minister's fierce advocacy of a law banning smoking in public places, which he said eventually had to be postponed and made less strict.
Mrsic went on to say that Milinovic had initially claimed that there would be no vaccine for virus H1N1, only to buy it later in huge quantities, which he said had been left unused to a great extent, with the expiration date of August 2010.
The minister first initiated and then withdrew a regulation banning hospital doctors from working also in private clinics, he first introduced additional medical insurance for all, and then decided that the state could no longer pay it for 350,000 people, he announced the abolishment of maternity clinics in some municipalities and then withdrew that decision too, Mrsic said.
"The minister is definitely trying to convince the public that he is doing something to reform the health system, but there is simply no reform. We expect him to finally say that there is no reform," said Mrsic.
