The Committee on Health and the Family held its twenty-seventh sitting on 1 March 2010. The sitting was chaired by the Committee Chairman, Dr Paja Momcilov and attended by representatives of the Ministry of Health, the Republic Institute for Health Insurance, Serbian Health Council, Serbian Medical Society, Serbian Institute of Public Health Dr Milan Jovanovic Batut, Serbian Medical Chamber, Chamber of Pharmacists, Serbian Chamber of Biochemists, Serbian Chamber of Healthcare Institutions, Serbian Chamber of Nurses and Health Technicians, Serbian Medical Association of Private Doctors, Serbian Association of Healthcare Beneficiaries Club Health, National Organisation of Persons with Disabilities, Association of Private Doctors and Dentists Salus, Military Medical Academy and Belgrade Faculty of Stomatology.

The Committee members shared opinions with the authorised representatives on the Proposal of the Decision on the Republic of Serbia Healthcare Development Plan, submitted by the Government of the Republic of Serbia.

Presenting the Proposal of the Decision on the Republic of Serbia Healthcare Development Plan, State Secretary at the Ministry of Health Perisa Simonovic stated that the document covers the health characteristics of the population, health risk factors, basic characteristics of the healthcare service and the environment, as well as its influence on people’s health. Simonovic said that the Government of the Republic of Serbia had formulated the Decision Proposal on 29 December 2009 and that this would be the first time the National Assembly adopted such a document.

Committee Chairman Dr Paja Momcilov deemed the decision proposal generalised and superficial adding that it should be returned to the submitter for additional work. Dr Momcilov pointed out that the name of the document should be specified i.e. harmonised with the laws in force, as well as that the document should be harmonised with European standards and recommendations from the World Health Organisation document Twenty-One Goals for the Twenty-First Century.

The Committee concluded to consider the objections, proposals and suggestions to the document that the National Organisation of Persons with Disabilities would submit to the Committee, at the next sitting.