ZAGREB CLINICAL HOSPITAL MANAGEMENT BOARD LAUNCHES PROCEDURE TO REPLACE DIRECTOR PALADINO

ZAGREB, March 26 (Hina) - After a three-hour exhausting debate, the management board of the Zagreb Clinical Hospital on Friday decided with a majority of votes that the hospital ended last year with a loss of 55 million kuna that was unaccounted for and initiated a procedure to replace hospital director Josip Paladino, whom it found responsible for the loss.#L# The hospital's leadership did not manage to convince three government-appointed members of the management board that last year's claims of 75 million kuna towards the Health Insurance Agency, which accumulated because of the existing system of payment in the health sector, were higher than the loss. They corroborated their claims with the findings of an independent Zagreb auditing agency and an expert witness, who established that the 55 million kuna debt was accounted for and therefore could not be considered a loss. Paladino's replacement was supported by the head of the management board and Assistant Health Minister Milan Kujundzic, Assistant Health Minister Katja Matijevic, and a doctor from Zagreb's Sisters of Mercy hospital, Ivan Krolo, while management board members Boris Labar and Nada Nezic Becarovski were against. Labar and Nezic Becarovski accused Kujundzic of trying to unlawfully replace Paladino. Paladino called today's session a farce and said he would use all legal means, including a request for the replacement of the management board, to prove that the procedure of his replacement was unlawful. Kujundzic dismissed accusations about the procedure being unlawful. (Hina) rml