Patients waiting in public health institutions.
Public health institutions. Photo: archive of "Dnevnik".
Doctors make patients pay for public health care
Due to lack of public clinics, Macedonian doctors advice their patients to come to priavte clinics where they work in the evening - but here the patients have to pay.
By Jordanka Ivanovska, Skopje, Macedonia.
Patients complain that they have been mistreated by their doctors who oblige them to come to their second working place in the private clinics and polyclinics where the treatment is not paid by the state. The problem is that during their working time in the state owned clinics, there are too many patients. For example a simple appointment for roentgen shots can last for months, like it is the case with mamography, even though up to 700 cases of breast cancer are discovered in Macedonia on an annual level. This is why the doctors use this situation and recommend their patients to come to the private clinics.
Because of the doctors neglecting, patients suffer and have additional problems beside the fact that some of them are in bad health and economic situation so they have no other option than to follow their doctor's advice.
Patients want to know where their money for health insurance goes because they pay to the state for their insurance, but at the same time when they go to a clinic they have to buy basic materials by themselves, like bandages, iodine and syringes. They even have to pay for blood, even though this is donated for free by the blood donors in Macedonia. However, the Health insurance Fund is quiet about this topic.
The stories were published on 22-nd, 23-rd and 24-th of June in macedonian daily "Dnevnik". To read them in English, please click on the files beneath this text. To read them in Macedonian, please click on the links.
