PARLIAMENT DEBATES SET OF HEALTH BILLS

ZAGREB, May 23 (Hina) - Investments in health are the government's second-biggest project after the Zagreb-Split highway, Health Minister Andro Vlahusic said in the Croatian parliament on Friday, replying to criticism from the opposition that a set of health bills was poor. #L# During today's debate, the benches of the ruling coalition parties endorsed the four bills -- on medicine, stomatology, medical- biochemical activity, and nurses. Most opposition benches, however, disagreed with Vlahusic's assessment that the bills regulate quality and expert doctor performance. The Croatian Democratic Union took exception to the fact that the bills had been put forward just before parliamentary elections, and said the bills failed to regulate the status of doctors in the health system because they continue to be paid as civil servants. The Social Liberals said the bills did not resolve the key issues -- the decentralisation of the health system, privatisation in health, the reorganisation of primary health care, and the status of health workers. The party said that medical technicians and physical therapists, also health workers, had been left out of the bills without justification. The Democratic Centre and the Croatian Bloc were among the few opposition parties which endorsed the health bills. They said, however, the package should have been passed earlier. (hina) ha sb