The Council of the National Institute of Public Health has selected Milan Krek as the new director. He was a head the Koper branch of the institute until now. As said by the Council’s president Rok Tavčar, Krek’s extensive presentation today was convincing.
The Government has yet to approve the appointment of the director, Rok Tavčar reminded.
Besides Krek, a microbiologist from the National Laboratory for Health, the Environment and Food, Gorazd Pretnar applied for the position.
Krek, who was a head of the Government’s Bureau for Drugs years ago, has been appearing at Government press conferences in recent weeks presenting current data on the covid-19 epidemic. In doing so, he encouraged speculation that he could take over the leadership of the National Institute of Public Health. He himself neither confirmed or denied whether he applied for the position.
The Institute was looking for a new director after Nina Pirnat stepped down in March. Since then, the institute was managed by the acting director Ivan Eržen, who responded critically at the end of March to the tightening restrictive measures to fight the new coronavirus by the Government, and it was speculated that the Institution’s Council could dismiss Eržen. But the council, whose members were recently replaced by the Government, then announced a post of a director. Health minister Tomaž Gantar said about a week ago that Eržen didn’t apply.
Certain leading politicians, including Gantar, have been repeatedly critical of the Institute in recent weeks, saying that it misjudged the situation regarding the new coronavirus, and Slovenia therefore missed out a crucial time to act earlier.
Source: STA, vecer.com
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