Tourists feel secure with Croatian rescue services

Speaking at a conference entitled "Strategy to advance emergency medical care during the tourist season", which was held in Split on Tuesday, Health Minister Rajko Ostojic pointed out that this year the average time for ambulances to reach accident scenes was around 11 minutes and that patients were hospitalised on average within 48 minutes, which is one of the best records in Europe.

Minister Ostojic explained that more than 11 million tourists pass through the country during the year and this year 13 additional ambulance teams were on call during the tourist season.

He described steps taken when a Czech bus crashed in June on the Zagreb-Split highway when eight tourists were killed and another 43 injured. The Czech Republic sent a government aircraft that was equipped like a hospital and most of the Czech tourists were transferred to hospitals in their home country. The remaining patients were transferred within the week, Ostojic said.

"Coordination between our two countries in that case was excellent", Minister Ostojic said.

Czech Consul-General to Croatia Pavel Bednar thanked Croatian rescue and ambulance staff for the excellent work in that accident in June, saying that cooperation in that case between institutions in both countries was perfect and that it could serve as a model for training purposes.

Deputy Tourism Minister Oleg Valjalo said that the results of a survey conducted amongst tourists indicated that 73 percent would visit Croatia again because they felt safe here due to the good organisation of Croatian rescue and medical institutions. (Hina)