Due to the departure of doctors to work abroad, North Macedonia is facing a shortage of medical personnel, and therefore the closing of hospital departments, said the president of the Macedonian Medical Chamber, Kalina Grivčeva Stardelova.
“Such a case is in the Clinical Hospital in Ohrid, where the children’s ward functions only as a regular clinic, because there is no pediatrician,” Stardelova said, adding that this was not the case seven years ago.
She pointed out that a specialist needs six years of education to be ready to lead a department.
The doctor from the Ohrid hospital, Violeta Mickoska, points out that there is no rheumatologist in this health institution, and that there is a shortage of ophthalmologists, anesthesiologists, radiologists, and physical therapy.
“Everywhere we turn, we are understaffed,” said Mickoska.
The lack of doctors is also recorded in the hospital in Struga, where there are no dermatologists, radiologists, epidemiologists, doctors of occupational medicine and social medicine.
The Medical Chamber states that 232 doctors are over 60 years old and that North Macedonia could face a shortage of such personnel, reports Macedonian media.
