It was July 23, 2025.
Sunny and unusually hot from the early morning hours. The temperature rose quickly, and summer showed its full strength that day. From the morning on, people were heading toward the city\u2019s largest public recreation and bathing area along the river. Beaches were filling up, the sun was scorching, and the city sought relief by the water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Just two kilometers away, in the same part of the city, in an apartment on Lje\u0161ka Street, the sounds of that summer day could almost be felt through the open windows.
But in that apartment, there was no space for summer carefreeness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The health condition of 71-year-old S. K. suddenly worsened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The family reacted immediately.
Without hesitation.
Without panic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Before calling the Emergency Medical Service, they contacted the physician who had been treating him and was familiar with his medical history. She listened carefully to the symptoms\u2014without interrupting, without guessing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After that, she left no room for doubt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She said clearly: This was not a dilemma. With that knowledge\u2014and with trust in a system that is meant to respond in such situations\u2014the family called the Belgrade Emergency Medical Service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At that moment, they could not know that just a few kilometers away, in the same municipality, emergency medical teams would be engaged in a pre-planned assignment, while they themselves would be told to wait.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to the medical report of the Belgrade Institute for Emergency Medicine, the call to the Emergency Service was received at 11:08 a.m. via the emergency number 194 and classified as a second-degree urgency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the extraordinary internal control report, however, the time of receiving the call is stated as 11:06 a.m.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A difference of two minutes may seem insignificant. According to the medical documentation, the call was forwarded to the field team only at 11:22 a.m.\u201414 minutes after it was received.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The team arrived at the apartment at 11:35 a.m.<\/p>\n\n\n\n From the moment the call was made until the team arrived, 27 minutes had passed<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The medical report states that the patient was conscious and oriented, but in generally poor condition, with elevated body temperature, pronounced weakness, and impaired communication. Therapy was administered, after which a short-term subjective improvement was noted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nowhere in the documentation is it stated that hospital treatment was unnecessary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On the contrary\u2014based on the actions taken and the communication with the family, it clearly follows that sanitary transport was planned<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, the transport was not carried out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What does not appear in the medical report, nor is explicitly stated in the conclusion of the internal control\u2014but emerges from later statements by the healthcare workers involved\u2014is the following:<\/p>\n\n\n\n That circumstance, however, was not recorded in the official medical documentation at the time of the intervention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was not stated as the reason for the unexecuted transport. Instead, the family was informed that transport would arrive in about one or two hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At that moment, the system had already failed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Not because of an incorrect medical assessment, After the first intervention ended, the family was told that sanitary transport would be organized.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Following the instructions of the medical technician, the patient\u2019s son called the Emergency Medical Service again immediately after the team left, requesting that transport be provided as soon as possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At that moment, there was no dilemma. At the same time, according to his own statement, the medical technician contacted the dispatch center for transport, explained the patient\u2019s condition and the circumstances on site, and clearly stated that hospital care was necessary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The response was the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The transport team was not available. In the apartment on Lje\u0161ka Street, time began to stretch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The family did the only thing they could: They relied on the instructions they had received\u2014but without what was crucial: hospital care<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Through the open windows came the sounds of the city. Summer noise. Laughter. Music. Cars heading toward the riverside recreation area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Just two kilometers away, people were entering the water, spending a day they would remember as another beautiful summer day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In that apartment, time did not have the same meaning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As the hours passed, S. K.\u2019s condition did not improve. The temperature continued to rise. Weakness intensified. Exhaustion became visible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Around 16:30 p.m., the family called the Emergency Service again, asking when the sanitary transport would finally arrive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There was no precise answer. Only the repeated sentence: As the hours passed, nervousness in the apartment grew\u2014not sudden or panicked, but quiet and exhausting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At one point, S. K. fell asleep. For a brief moment, the family thought that perhaps the therapy had worked. That transport would arrive before the condition worsened again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was a short and deceptive respite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n From the open windows, the sounds of summer could still be heard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then the silence changed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The family was the first to notice that something was wrong. The breathing became irregular. Then\u2014it stopped.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At 5:10 p.m., they called the Emergency Service again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This time, they did not ask for transport. The same Emergency Medical Service team that had already been there earlier that day arrived again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This intervention was short.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Without therapy. The doctor could only confirm death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That morning, everything still seemed solvable. It was a summer day filled with hope that help would arrive, with trust that the system exists precisely for such moments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n By the afternoon, in the same apartment, one life was extinguished.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While in the apartment on Lje\u0161ka Street a quiet drama unfolded over more than five and a half hours, just two kilometers away the system functioned in an entirely different mode.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the city\u2019s main public bathing and recreation area along the river, on that same day, the Belgrade Institute for Emergency Medicine had engaged four complete emergency medical teams<\/strong>, including one sanitary transport team<\/strong>, based on a commercial contract for medical coverage of the location.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Those teams were not on standby for the entire city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They were tied to one location.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Under contractual obligations, the teams engaged at the recreational area were not allowed to leave their position, except within the boundaries of that location\u2014regardless of emergencies elsewhere in the city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In practice, this meant that at the very moment when the family of S. K. was waiting for sanitary transport, a transport team existed<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was formed. But it was not available.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \n The document shown above is the official duty roster for medical coverage at the Ada Ciganlija public bathing area on the day in question.\n <\/p>\n\n \n The medical teams assigned to this duty were composed of healthcare workers employed by the Belgrade Institute for Emergency Medicine and paid from mandatory public health insurance funds<\/strong>, financed by contributions from all citizens.\n <\/p>\n\n \n Despite being fully staffed, equipped, and located less than two kilometers away<\/strong>, these teams were not available<\/strong> to respond to emergency medical needs outside the bathing area.\n <\/p>\n\n \n Their unavailability was not the result of medical judgment or operational overload, but of contractual restrictions<\/strong>. Under a commercial agreement, the teams were engaged exclusively for on-site medical coverage and were not permitted to leave the location<\/strong>, even when urgent medical needs arose nearby.\n <\/p>\n\n \n This commercial engagement generated approximately five million dinars<\/strong> in revenue for the Institute, recorded as its own-source income, while the cost of labor for the same teams continued to be borne by the public health insurance system. As a result, publicly funded emergency medical resources were physically present, operational, and nearby\u2014yet functionally inaccessible to the citizens who finance them.\n <\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n For this engagement, the Institute generated nearly five million dinars in revenue during the summer season, recorded as the institution\u2019s own income.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the same time, the doctors, medical technicians, and drivers on duty at the recreational area\u2014who would otherwise serve all citizens\u2014were paid from mandatory public health insurance funds, into which S. K. had contributed for more than 53 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is not a question of an individual doctor\u2019s decision. It is a question of system design<\/strong>\u2014in which publicly funded emergency resources are systematically redirected from their core mission by planned contractual arrangements, without adequate replacement capacity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The system that day was not overloaded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was occupied<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Occupied by a contract. And the cost of that occupation does not appear in financial reports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It appears in apartments where help is awaited\u2014and never arrives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Call the Emergency Medical Service and have him transported immediately to a tertiary hospital facility.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
This was not advice \u201cjust in case.\u201d
This was a clear medical recommendation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/pokretmeri.org.rs\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Ada-1-2-577x1024.jpg\")
![\"Emergency](\"https:\/\/pokretmeri.org.rs\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Ada2-1-578x1024.jpg\")
\n\n\n\nII. The First Arrival \u2014 Help That Delays and Stops<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
What followed was not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
It was not translated into an operational request for additional assistance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
but because of the lack of operational capacity to implement its own assessment<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/pokretmeri.org.rs\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/sk1-733x1024.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nIII. Waiting That Lasts<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Everyone assumed that transport was only a matter of time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They were told to wait.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
they tried to lower the high body temperature, to cool the patient, to ease his breathing, to keep him conscious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There was no arrival time.
There was no explanation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Transport is still not available.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nIV. The Moment of Silence<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
His breathing seemed calmer. His body more relaxed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They asked for someone to come immediately.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Without conversation.
Without further decisions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/pokretmeri.org.rs\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/sk2-722x1024.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nV. The System That Was Occupied That Day<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
It was equipped.
It was only minutes away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/pokretmeri.org.rs\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/raspored-ada-1024x659.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Nor of an on-site medical assessment.
Nor of a \u201cdifficult case.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Occupied by a schedule.
Occupied by revenue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n