DIRECTOR OF EMERGENCY SERVICES ACCUSES TECHNICIANS, STUDENTS REFUTE: “They didn’t refuse to provide help, but to go on duty in SNS premises!”

The director of the Institute for Emergency Medicine Novi Sad, Bogdan Živanović, held a press conference where he finally revealed to the public the number of injured people during the protests in that city, but also presented a series of controversial facts – that he was called directly by the SNS while he was on vacation, he called his female doctor colleagues “blockers”, and he initiated disciplinary proceedings against two medical technicians because, allegedly, they refused to provide help to injured SNS supporters. The students of the Faculty of Medicine in the blockade, however, state that the technicians refused – to be on duty in the SNS premises.

The director of the Novi Sad Emergency Services said at the press conference that “failure to provide emergency medical assistance due to political discrimination” occurred in front of the SNS premises on August 13.

He added that the Institute for Emergency Medicine started receiving attacks on social networks after the initiation of disciplinary proceedings against two technicians who, according to him, refused to provide help to SNS supporters, and that teams are being attacked and pelted with stones in Novi Sad.

“I am a doctor, but also a Serb and a patriot. It is not only my job to protect the rights of patients, but it is my obligation to also protect the constitutional order of Serbia. When someone starts to lose trust in the Emergency Services because they think we are thugs, that person’s condition can seriously worsen,” said Živanović.

Novi Sad, August 13: A call from the SNS premises to the director personally

Živanović said that on August 13, when the attack on the SNS premises in Novi Sad occurred, he was on vacation, but he received information that three Emergency Services teams had intervened in Stražilovska.

“Not long after that, I received a call from the SNS on Bulevar (Oslobođenja) that there were about ten injured people inside and that they needed a team,” said Živanović.

He said that the working principle is for the closest teams to go to the scene, and that the closest team was two minutes away from Bulevar Oslobođenja and the premises of the Serbian Progressive Party.

“The names of the two workers who refused to provide help to the SNS members will be published, they are publishing it themselves on social networks,” said Živanović.

According to him, the people who were inside the SNS premises did not know if the Emergency Services had arrived because help was also being provided to those outside who were injured, of whom there were 30 at first.

He stated that when the Emergency Services teams from Klisa and Kać arrived, the attack on the members of the Cobras also began. Živanović claims that the firing of a warning shot into the air by one of the members of the Cobras also saved the Emergency Services teams. He pointed out that, when the Emergency Services teams were left without police protection, he ordered them to temporarily withdraw.

“Fortunately, that lasted for about ten minutes and we immediately brought back three teams that continued to take care of the policemen and the injured people in front of the party. Then I receive information that one of the technicians refuses to enter the party premises to help the injured,” said the director of the Institute for Emergency Medicine.

He said that on three occasions medical supplies were brought to Bulevar Oslobođenja and that 65 people were transported by Emergency Services vehicles, and more than 300 were examined on the spot.

“They blocked our fourth delivery because they figured out where our vehicles were going. The ones who refused to work, I said that those people should be removed from the scene,” said Živanović and added that, despite all the problems, all citizens were taken care of on August 13 and that the Emergency Services doctors were the last to leave the scene.

In an attempt to find out how many citizens and policemen were injured in the protests across Serbia, which took place from August 12, the N1 portal previously contacted the Institute for Emergency Medicine Novi Sad.

The numbers that director Živanović presented at the press conference were not delivered to us, but we received a brief notification that “The Institute for Emergency Medicine Novi Sad with several emergency medical teams took care of a large number of injured people at several locations in Novi Sad. All citizens received adequate assistance according to a doctor’s assessment. Some of the injured were taken care of on the spot, and according to a doctor’s assessment, a larger number of citizens were transported in a conscious state, with various injuries, to the Emergency Center of the KCV. The degree and qualification of the injuries are determined by the health institution after diagnostics and therapy have been carried out.”

We did not receive an answer from the Novi Sad Emergency Services to our request to more specifically determine what “a large number of injured” and “a larger number of citizens” transported to the Emergency Center means.

Identical statements from employees, calls female colleagues “blockers”

Živanović said at the conference that the day after the riots in Novi Sad, he returned from vacation and took statements from all employees. According to his claims, everyone wrote an identical statement in which it was stated that two technicians refused to go out, and that was because it was about injured members of the SNS.

“These are two young technicians, who are under the influence of the doctors who are blockers,” added Živanović. He claims that on the doctors’ Viber group there was a thank you note to the technicians who refused to provide help to the SNS sympathizers.

Kako saznajemo, dva tehničara zaposlena na Zavodu za urgentnu medicinu u Novom Sadu, Nemanja Velikić i Dejan Spremić, dobili su upozorenje da postoji osnov za otkaz ugovora o radu i da ukoliko se isti utvrdi, u roku od 8 dana će dobiti otkaz.

Sve to zato što su odbili odlazak na…
— MFNS blokada (@blokada_mfns) August 19, 2025

Students: They didn’t refuse to provide help, but to go on duty in the SNS premises

On August 19, students of the Faculty of Medicine in Novi Sad in the blockade published on the “X” network that two emergency medical technicians, Nemanja Velikić and Dejan Spremić, were being threatened with dismissal, but not because they refused to provide help to someone, but because they refused to go on duty in the SNS premises on August 13.

On August 22, the Nova.rs portal published the testimony of employees of the Institute for Emergency Medicine Novi Sad, who stated that the director was carrying out terror on them.

As they said, the director personally divided them into two Viber groups – one in which there are loyal employees, and another in which there are “talkers, fascists and anti-Serbs.”

Who is the head of the Novi Sad Emergency Services

The director of the Institute for Emergency Medicine Novi Sad, Dr. Bogdan Živanović, has been at the head of this health institution for more than a decade.

He was written about in 2014 when, as a councilor of the Third Serbia in the Assembly of Sremski Karlovci, he switched from that political organization to the Serbian Progressive Party. According to the then information of 021.rs, the switch happened on the initiative of the first man of the Vojvodina progressives, Igor Mirović.

One of the technicians – a “hero of the day” during the corona

By the way, one of the technicians who is accused of not providing medical assistance to SNS supporters is Dejan Spremić, who was declared a “hero of the day” during the coronavirus pandemic in 2020.

From the beginning, he helped patients who were accommodated at the Novi Sad fair.