Delchevo, 9 August 2024 (MIA) – The Municipality of Delchevo organized the first meeting with representatives of the Network of Associations of Local Authorities of South-East Europe (NALAS) as part of a project envisaging social and health services to be provided in an innovative and smart way with advanced technology. 

Delchevo is the first municipality in the country in which the pilot telemedicine project will be implemented. The Municipality of Delchevo has efficiently completed its tasks in finding enough general practitioners (GPs) that will take part in the project, according to Jana Belcheva Andreevska, who is in charge of digitization of municipalities in South-eastern Europe.  

“This project won’t have quality implementation if GPs aren’t involved to cooperate. On one hand, we have the municipality, the project implementor, and then there are the GPs alongside certified service providers of the municipality,” said Belcheva Andreevska.

NALAS, being an organization that implements the project across Macedonia, she said, will always be here to help and to monitor the activities.

Belcheva Andreevska said she hoped the pilot project will be expanded in other municipalities in the country.

“The project will benefit people who are cut off from social and health services as well as people with disabilities. We expect the project to help ease the pressure on GPs,” she stated. 

Under the project, certified equipment, serving as a monitoring station, will be installed temporarily in a patient’s home. Their vitals will be shown real time by a station installed at the GP’s office.  

After the meeting, officials of the Municipality, the Delchevo Red Cross and NALAS visited the doctor Sonja Mavrodieva Georgievska. Her practice, Multi Medika, is one of the five practices that will conduct distant diagnostics of patients who are at home. 

“Primarily, people with severe illnesses will be monitored, who have difficulties moving and are not always capable of coming to the practice. It will be a good thing to monitor them 24/7 and to have the support of both the family and the doctors,” said the GP.

The project will be implemented by the Municipality of Delchevo, NALAS and Austria’s Center for Public Administration Research (KDZ) with finances provided by the Austrian Agency for Development. Implemented throughout 2024, the project will cover as many patients in the town in the eastern part of the country, mainly the elderly and frail people from rural areas. 

Photo: MIA