Annexes have been signed, which means part of the biological therapy that was not available at the Oncology Clinic on Skopje will be made available perhaps as early as Wednesday (29 January).
When it comes to the rest, the Health Insurance Fund is still negotiating with manufacturers. That should be completed by the end of the week.
According to Igor Stojkovski, the head of the Clinic, in the past, an individual would decide on which patient should receive biological therapy, while that is now done by a professional board consisting of 12 doctors.
Stojkovski said he hoped that there would be no more problems with therapy once the current situation was overcome. As he explained, there is a lack of medicines as part of the therapy of 40-60 patients.
“I hope we will soon secure it”, he noted, adding that the issue had been caused by an increase in the number of patients.
The current, short-term, measure, authorities believe, should cover the brief period until the annual tender that should prevent a medications crisis from happening again.
“A very brief period should be bridged in terms of securing medications for a 4-5-week period and for that period to see the regular annual procurement processes carried out”, Health Insurance Fund head Saso Klekovski said.