Sarajevo Residents Campaign Against Hospital Closure

Campaigners against the closure have been gathering signatures and messages of support outside the General Hospital Abdulah Nakas since the start of this week to protest against the authorities' decision to move it from its current location and merge it into the University Clinic Centre of Sarajevo (UKCS).

"The closure of this hospital would mean an incredible loss for the citizens of Sarajevo," Hajrudin Osmancevic, one of the campaigners, told BIRN.

"It would mean the end of an institution which has always worked well for the benefit of all of us for more than 150 years, even during the war, and it has become a symbol for Sarajevo and the whole of Bosnia and Herzegovina," he said.

In three days, the campaign, which is based around a Facebook group called  'We're Not Surrendering Our Hospital', has gathered more than 1,500 signatures from people who are worried that this would significantly reduce the quality of public healthcare for Sarajevo residents.

Many people have also reacted angrily because local media have been reporting that the government of Bosnia's Federation entity will move to the building after it is vacated by the hospital.

The news also came only a week after the nomination of Sebija Izetbegovic, the wife of Bosniak member of the Presidency Bakir Izetbegovic, to the position of director of UKCS after having occupied the place of director of the threatened  Abdulah Nakas hospital.

"This fight is really decisive for us. First our politicians took the industries and factories, now they're taking away the public hospitals. The next step is they will come to your house and take it away from you," another campaigner, Anes Podic, told BIRN.

The decision to move the General Hospital to the UKCS was taken at the...