The President of North Macedonia, Stevo Pendarovski, assessed today that the publicly available information about suspected misuse of therapy for cancer patients at the Oncology Clinic in Skopje is "appalling and horrifying".
On September 1, the police and the Skopje prosecutor's office entered the Clinic for Radiotherapy and Oncology and began a preliminary investigation after some media reported that employees of that hospital were reselling expensive therapy to patients "on the black market", which caused a great outcry from citizens.
"Instead of providing full support and protection to those who are faced with the most difficult diagnosis, the health system has clearly failed, which has lost trust not only among the sick, but has called into question the quality of treatment for every future patient," Pendarovski wrote on Facebook.
The president of North Macedonia said that he fully understands the anger of the citizens and welcomed the actions taken so far by the prosecutor's office and the police in the course of completely clearing up this huge affair.
"At the same time, I call for a quick and efficient end to the investigation and court-prosecution proceedings without selectivity and appropriate punishment of all those who are proven to have committed serious acts against people's health," Pendarovski wrote.
The governing and opposition parties requested that the case of the alleged resale of cytostatics and therapy at the Oncology Clinic in Skopje be resolved, and citizens announced peaceful protests through social networks.
The Prime Minister of North Macedonia, Dimitar Kovačevski, stated today that "there will be no pardon for anyone" and requested that the case not be politicized because, as he said, it is a multi-party and multi-ethnic crime.
"No one must exert any influence or pressure on this case. Politicizing will only mean hiding someone, and that's why I urge you not to politicize and for the institutions to finish what they started in the most professional way," Kovačevski said.
According to him, the ongoing investigation is being carried out professionally, and a large number of materials and persons are involved in order to determine exactly who the culprits are, what exactly they did and then be prosecuted according to the laws of the country.
Kovačevski pointed out that the new director of the Oncology Clinic was appointed during his mandate and that she fully cooperates with the investigation together with her colleagues, as if the same applies to the Minister of Health and his deputy.
"After 20 years of everything we heard in the state, which is happening in a large number of sectors, especially in healthcare, for the first time the (Ministry of Internal Affairs) and the Prosecutor's Office stepped in and took action in the part of gathering evidence, in connection with publicly presented accusations and by the suspicions of citizens, the media, patients, in connection with the therapies that were issued at one of the clinics in the Clinical Center in Skopje. This is a terrible case in which the MUP has a designated team that works to collect extensive evidence," said Kovačevski.
The Minister of Internal Affairs of North Macedonia, Oliver Spasovsaki, said this morning, in an interview, that the police and the prosecutor's office are determined to answer all questions seriously.
"This case, when human life is at stake, in my opinion, should not be politicized, that way we are not showing the human dimension," he said on the occasion of the protests announced for today.
Regarding the article about possible political interventions in this case, Spasovski said that he "doesn't care at all" whether someone from the government or some political party will intervene.
"The team working on this case has the task of discovering all the culprits. Neither religion nor nationality matters to me, I am not at all interested in whether someone is from the Government, SDSM, DUI, VMRO-DPMNE, Alliance (for Albanians). Which one is that political structure is more valuable than one human life," said Spasovski in an interview with cable TV 21.
The Skopje Prosecutor's Office announced today that the prosecutors and the police are "intensively taking action to investigate allegations of possibly committed criminal acts in connection with the treatment of patients and the work of the Oncology Clinic".
It is emphasized that warrants are continuously issued and evidence is provided to verify the veracity of allegations presented in journalistic investigations published in recent weeks.
According to the Prosecutor's Office, the management of the Oncology Clinic, as well as other medical and nursing staff, fully cooperates and helps in this, and appropriate orders have already been given for the analysis of computers and computer data seized during the search, and investigative authorities are questioning all persons who have knowledge of illegal actions.
"The Public Prosecutor's Office assures the public that all allegations will be fully investigated, and that all possible perpetrators of criminal offenses will be prosecuted. The whole procedure from the first moment is conducted as transparently as possible and with respect for all legal procedures," the announcement of the Basic Public Prosecutor's Office of Skopje states. .
It is emphasized that the prosecutor's office encourages everyone who has information about this case to report it to the competent authorities and notes that "it has already conducted three cases of isolated cases of attempted drug theft and bribery related to the Oncology Clinic, one of which but in court proceedings".
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