Vladimir Dugalic, professor at the Faculty of Medicine and surgeon at the First Surgical Clinic of the University Clinical Center (UCC) of Serbia, told the Fonet news agency that Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic’s visit to patients from North Macedonia in the intensive care unit (ICU) was “shameful political propaganda.”

A number of patients injured in the Sunday nightclub fire in North Macedonia have been transported to Serbia for treatment. On Monday evening, with his entourage of reporters, Vucic visited the patients before even their families were allowed in. Some of the patients are in intensive care and in critical condition. Photos of Vucic with the injured sparked strong reactions from citizens in North Macedonia on social media.

The Minister of Health of North Macedonia, Arben Taravari, has appealed to the media to refrain from publishing photos and videos of the injured in their most vulnerable times.

Dugalic emphasized that he sometimes regrets being part of the medical profession when he sees someone allowing “an unauthorized person without a cap” into the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) where access is strictly prohibited even to patients’ family members.

The professor stressed that “burns are open wounds” and that the patients who are victims of the nightclub fire in North Macedonia are “in life-threatening condition.”

He said that he publicly disowns “colleagues who allowed Vucic to enter the Intensive Care Unit,” describing it as participation in political propaganda that directly endangers people’s lives.

According to Dugalic, Health Minister Zlatibor Loncar is also part of this political propaganda, and in Dugalic’s opinion, he can no longer be trusted because he is a government loyalist.

When asked how it was possible that University Clinical Center of Serbia doctors allowed Vucic to touch patients with life-threatening burns with his bare hands, Dugalic said that he and his “normal colleagues are appalled,” and reiterated that he disowns “those colleagues who participate in this type of political propaganda” in a way that could endanger patients’ lives.

On Tuesday morning, Dragoslav Pavlovic, the mayor of the Serbian city of Nis, visited two young men at the Military Hospital in Nis who were injured in the North Macedonia nightclub fire, according to the city’s website. Additionally, a 45-year-old woman who was critically injured in the horrific fire in North Macedonia was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit of the Nis University Clinical Centre Anesthesia Clinic and is under constant medical supervision.

Photos of Pavlovic beside the injured patients have also surfaced on social media.