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Though several new medications have been placed on the last positive list, oncology patients have said they are yet to get the complete therapy they need. “The new list is a step forward, but it is not enough to provide continued and full treatment of patients”, the HEMA-ONKO association explains. In addition to the uncertainty and fear caused by the lack of therapy, cancer patients have complained also of the increasingly lower number of nurses in the health sector. “Sometimes, there are two nurses per 100 patients, which is below the level when compared to the whole of Europe. In other countries, let’s say, Slovenia, as an example of a country to whose system we want to adjust, as the Health Ministry has told us, there is one nurse per four patients”, the association’s Lidija Pecova stresses. According to current figures of the Public Health Institute, Gordana Beslioska of the Association of Nurses says, there are 9,200 nurses. “If one takes the standard figure on ratio, there is currently a lack of 45%”, she points out. Beslioska explains that though there are enough nurses at some institutions, in the secondary and tertiary sector, there are serious deficits. The Health Ministry says it is aware there is a lack of staff in the health system. It points out that the issue of oncology patients will be being resolved by dispersing treatment processes and opening new centres in Stip, Bitola, and at Skopje’s 8 Septemvri (8 September) City General Hospital.
