The Committee on Health and the Family held its ninth session on 12 May. It was chaired by Dr Paja Momcilov, the Committee’s chairman.

Members of the Committee adopted the following conclusions regarding the complaint relating to the reform of Serbia’s National Blood Transfusion Service:

1. The reform of the National Blood Transfusion Service, as announced on the official website of the Ministry of Health, is not well conceived and is untenable (blood is collected throughout Serbia, transported, processed and tested at three centres, while decisions on who needs how much blood where are made at the centre. Whether blood will reach health centres in time depends on weather and road conditions, vehicle maintenance, etc.).

2. Transfusiologists neither have the right information about the announced reforms, nor are involved in it. It is the recommendation of the Committee on Health and the Family that all projected reforms of the Service should be endorsed by the Transfusiology Section of the Serbian Medical Society.

3. The work and further existence of the National Centre for Plasma Fractioning at Serbia’s National Blood Transfusion Institute must not be jeopardised.

4. Public purchases of equipment for the Blood Transfusion Service must not be allowed to prejudice the Service’s further reform (equipment purchased so far using donors’ funds has been directed exclusively to centres in Belgrade, Novi Sad and Nis).

5. The Government of the Republic of Serbia must, through its appropriate Ministry, determine the truthfulness of claims that assets from the budget were misspent by the Ministry of Health in 2002.

6. The Government of the Republic of Serbia must determine the truthfulness of claims made to the representative of the European Agency for Reconstruction that the Institute had imported radioactive plasma from the Ukraine and processed it into medicines for human use. The Ministry of Health, through its professional oversight service, as well as other appropriate government bodies, must examine this occurrence thoroughly and inform the Committee of their findings.