Doctors at public hospitals must obtain from pharmacies the ampoules that contain crucial medicine, just in case there is an urgent need for a patient, because that cure is not available in the hospital. This is one of the stories shared by hospital personnel in eastern Macedonia. While the minister of health Nikola Todorov promotes procurement of new equipment worth few million euro, hospitals lack the basic medicine, ampoules and medical materials.
The lack of funds is not always the reason why this happens. The case of Berovo is typical. The public health clinic has not had syringes in months, along with other medical materials. The shipment has gotten stuck somewhere and gets returned to the supplier five times. For seven months the clinic can’t obtain needles, syringes and x-ray film.
– The shipment has been rejected by the Council for public procurement of low-valued items. We were denied five times thus far and each shipment costs between nine and ten thousand denari. If this goes on we will have to shut down the clinic. We can’t obtain the most basic items, complains the director of the public health clinic in Berovo, Marija Radenska.
As an example for the strict processing of shipments by the Council, Radenska points to their latest attempt to procure materials to fix to building. The shipment returned because the clinic didn’t specify whether the nails should be five or ten millimeters.
Shipments are returned because of 100 or 200 denari in other health institutions in eastern Macedonia.
The patients are those who suffer the most, especially those who depend on ampoules, which, according to the law, can only be obtained from pharmacies that are within the hospitals. If the shipment is stuck then we turn to God for help.
V. K.
