engleski

Access to healthcare of minority groups in Croatia - comparison of legal regulations and practices

One of the fundamental documents at European Union level is the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. By its acceptance and subsequent incorporation into primary legislation, the European Union has moved its prime focus to the necessity to protect human rights on its own territory. The accession of the Republic of Croatia to the full European Union membership during the last enlargement in 2013, which brought Croatia to become the 28th EU member, was preceded by the process of harmonization of Croatian national legislation with the acquis communautaire. The right to health care, one of the fundamental human rights, has been guaranteed by the Constitution of the Republic of Croatia. The legal act ensuring Croatian implementation of anti-discrimination practices is the Anti-Discrimination Act, which came into force in 2009. The Croatian Anti- Discrimination Act recognizes seventeen grounds on which discrimination is prohibited and applies to the treatment of all state entities, bodies of local and regional self-government units, legal entities vested with public authority, and to the conduct of all legal and natural persons in ten areas including the area of health care. In our presentation, we will compare two levels of indicators of access to health care for minority groups, potentially vulnerable due to on ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation and gender, gender expression and gender identity. More specifically, we will incorporate results of research conducted within the EU research project “Healthcare as a Public Space: Social Integration and Social Diversity in the Context of Access to Healthcare in Europe”. The first level refers to the available internal documents of Croatian healthcare institutions concerning access to healthcare for mentioned minority groups. Using the method of qualitative thematic analysis, we have examined materials from Croatian hospitals and distinguished common themes and specific statements relating to the issue of access to healthcare. The next level includes the results of the last phase of our research. In this phase, interviews were conducted with members of minority groups and hospital employees. Through the results, we gained knowledge about real events in the daily practice of health institutions. Or, at least, about the subjective experience of these two groups of participants. In the final part of the presentation, we will draw conclusions about the similarities and differences between the levels in accordance with national legislation dealing with the right to health care for minority groups in question. Furthermore, we will offer some suggestions for improvements of regulation in the Croatian healthcare system governing access to healthcare for minority groups.

zdravstvena skrb ; Hrvatska ; ranjive skupine

nije evidentirano