Macedonia Makes Big Cuts in Health Sector

The salaries of some 27.000 hospital personnel will be frozen, some economic managers in the hospitals will be sacked and the hospitals' governing bodies reduced, he said. In addition some other expenditures will be eliminated as well.

“These measures will help achieve financial stability and will redistribute the money where it is needed and will boost the efficiency of the system,” Osmani told media.

According to the ministry's estimates, the debt of the somewhat 20 hospitals and clinics across the country has reached €15 million. The minister offered assurances, however, that the sector is not near collapse.

Meanwhile local media cite unnamed sources from the State Health Insurance Fund as saying that the Fund's bank account was recently frozen due to unpaid debts. Local Vreme daily speculates that this prompted the Ministry to announce the new measures.

The Health Insurance Fund denied that its account is frozen.

The conditions in the health sector are beyond boiling point, the opposition Social Democrats said in reaction to the announced set of measures. They argue that some of the measures will effectively reduce the salaries of the medical staff and could jeopardize the existence of the smaller medical clinics in rural areas.

“How will you explain to the people that in the same year that you initiated a ‘spectacular €100 million tender’ for purchasing new medical equipment, you cannot cover even the basic needs of the health system?” Social Democrat MP Andrej Petrov asked.

He expressed suspicion that the tender for the medical equipment was launched just for the sake of large provisions, which he claimed reached up to €28 million.