Members of the Seimas represented by COBALT prevail in court

After a year of litigation, the chamber of seven judges (extended composition) delivered a judgement granting the claim of COBALT clients and reversing orders of the Minister of Healthcare of the Republic of Lithuania by which Kaunas Clinics, a hospital of the Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, had been granted exclusive (monopoly) rights to provide neurological surgery services in Lithuania and represent Lithuania in the European Reference Network of Centres of Expertise.

The challenged orders of the Minister of Healthcare provided for the rendering of neurological surgery services mainly from the Neurological Surgery Centre (Kaunas Clinics, a Hospital of the Lithuanian University of Health Sciences) and only to a small extent from national and university neurological surgery centres. The chamber of judges of the Supreme Administrative Court ruled that the regulatory arrangement adopted by the Minister of Healthcare of the Republic of Lithuania was not capable of ensuring access to and suitability of healthcare services and did not ensure efficient implementation of the right of access of persons to quality healthcare.

COBALT services included drafting a request for the review of the lawfulness of the legal acts, advising the clients and representing them before the Supreme Administrative Court of Lithuania. The project was led by Managing Associate Maksimas Saveljevas and Senior Associate Ruslanas Černiauskas.