Mass protests erupted in front of the Government and Public Prosecutor’s Office buildings in North Macedonia after reports that health professionals had been selling off cancer medication and giving critically ill patients saline solution instead.
In other cases, it was alleged the medicine was stolen after medics logged it as having been given to people who were already dead so that no one would notice it had been stolen and resold on the black market.
Thousands of people joined the protests in the capital Skopje on 4th Spetember after news of the scandal at the University Clinic for Oncology and Radiotherapy broke.
At the protest, people were shouting ‘Murderers’, ‘Monsters’, ‘Justice for the victims’, ‘Enough silence’, holding banners in their hands.
Another had the message ‘Killers for profit’.
In North Macedonia, an ordinary doctor with no specialisation will not usually earn more than EUR 900 (GBP 769) gross and a nurse as little as EUR 600 (GBP 513) gross.
The fees for medication in contrast can often be thousands of euros for a single person for a month of treatments.
Several doctors and medical staff of the clinic have been linked with the alleged sale of expensive medicines on the black market, although so far no names have been made public.
However, police have confirmed they raided the clinic and the homes of two staff members, seizing documents, computers and data drives.
Protesters included many who were treated at the clinic who are demanding more information, including what drugs were targeted by the alleged fraudsters and what were their names so that they can see if their treatments were impacted by the alleged abuse.
Newsflash, in a talk with oncology patients who call themselves ‘Butterflies’, were told that the uncertainty about who and what was involved was causing sleepless nights and urged more transparency in the investigation.
One person who declined to be named said: “The doctors have advised us not to get stressed. But I can’t think we can do anything to ourselves that is more stressful than learning the person we entrusted our lives too had been selling off our chance of life.”
This is not the first scandal with the oncology clinic.
At the beginning of the year police arrested a nurse at the University Clinic for Oncology and Radiotherapy (UC) who was allegedly caught on CCTV smuggling cancer drugs out of the building, and accused her of stealing them for sale on the black market.
The medical director of the UC, Violeta Klisarovska, told local media: “The nurse caught in a repeated attempt to steal from the oncology clinic was immediately removed and did not enter the institution again.”
She added: “The nurse was caught in a repeated attempt and immediately removed from our clinic and also dismissed.”
The patients that Newsflash spoke with say that the problems with the UC are not new and that the latest news is a fresh slap in the face after years of being told cancer drugs were not available, or that the necessary tests could not be carried out.
Macedonian President Stevo Pendarovski said: “It is high time for the system to confirm that we are capable in practice, and not just in words, to deal with severe forms of organised crime and corruption and finally to end the culture of impunity for serious violations of laws.
“We will never be a true European society with protracted court proceedings and the absence of personal responsibility. For a healthy society, we need a rule of law in practice, not on paper>”
The next mass protest will be held next Monday, 11th September, while a group of oncology patients will be protesting every day as long as it takes to bring justice for every patient that they lost until now
So far, no arrests have been made no charges have been filed, and no official statement has been made.
