Skopje, 3 August 2023 (MIA) — The director of the Clinical Center may be appointed by the government but the clinics should be run by seasoned professionals, according to Dr. Niko Bekjarovski, initiator of a new, independent doctors union and member of the newly established Hippocrates Doctors Board at the existing doctors union.

Speaking at a press conference Thursday about the Ministry of Health's decision to merge all clinics into one Clinical Center managed by a single director, Bekjarovski said that all clinics should be run by experienced doctors.

"This should also mean more professional clinics. What does this mean? The Clinical Center director, yes, he may be chosen by the government. But the clinics should be managed by staff members who have at least 20 years of experience, specializations, and preferably, who are professors teaching at that clinic," Bekjarovski said.

He said the current "second director" positions in the organizational structure were estimated to be "wasting about 1,100,000 euros a year" with no other reason except "to hire more personnel."

According to Bekjarovski, some employees had only had "evening classes" in medicine.

"Believe me, there are nurses who do not know how to put a needle on a syringe. These nurses should not work at a Clinical Center. They shouldn't work anywhere else either," he said.

"They opened schools everywhere. People are taking evening classes. This is where low quality staff is coming from," he added.

Bekjarovski also said doctors were outraged because they had to bear the responsibility for any medical errors.

"In all these recent cases [of medical liability claims] no one has asked whether it was the nurses who administered the right therapy or if the paramedic drew the blood the right way," he said.

The doctors union leader Predrag Serafimovski said the union members agreed to publicly support Minister of Health Fatmir Mexhiti's initiative to merge, as of Jan 1., 2024, all clinics into a single Clinical Center headed by one director and one management board. mr/