NOVI PAZAR RISES UP FOLLOWING BABY’S DEATH: Citizens Protest Outside Hospital, Demand Director’s Dismissal and Urgent Investigation!

Citizens of Novi Pazar gathered today outside the Novi Pazar General Hospital to protest the death of a newborn in the hospital’s Gynecology and Obstetrics Department, demanding accountability and improvements in healthcare conditions and quality.

The Novi Pazar Citizens’ Assembly submitted nine demands to the hospital management, calling for concrete changes in the operation and administration of the General Hospital, the Takt portal reported.

Among the key demands are the dismissal of Director Meho Mahmutović and the entire management team, as well as an independent and thorough investigation into responsibility for patient deaths during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Assembly is also demanding an urgent and transparent determination of all the circumstances and possible failings surrounding the death of the newborn in the Gynecology and Obstetrics Department.

One of the demands concerns the re-establishment of a transfusion service in Novi Pazar, with appropriate staffing, technical and laboratory capacities, to ensure patients have timely access to blood and blood components.

The Citizens’ Assembly is also calling for improvements in the way medical staff treat patients, particularly women in the Gynecology and Obstetrics Department, and for patients not to be sent home because their chosen doctor is absent, but instead to be provided with an appropriate substitute.

The demands also include a review of obstetric practices, with respect for the rights and dignity of women giving birth, as well as consistent enforcement of professional dress codes and hygiene standards among employees.

The Assembly is demanding that the General Hospital’s management provide an official, public and reasoned response to all nine points, specifying concrete measures and deadlines for their implementation.

In explaining their demands, they stated that the citizens of Novi Pazar and the surrounding municipalities have the right to accessible, high-quality and safe healthcare, emphasizing that patients’ health and lives must not be endangered by negligence, irresponsibility and a lack of transparency.

“The citizens of Novi Pazar will not give up their demands for dignified, safe and high-quality healthcare,” the Citizens’ Assembly stated.