There is a great shortage of medical personnel in the east of the country. Doctors and nurses are retiring, and their vacancies are not being filled in the Shtip Clinical Hospital, which is a regional center and serves about 250,000 patients from two regions.
The head of the association of family doctors Lilija Cholakova Dervishova confirms that there is a lack of gynecologists, internists, pediatricians, and mostly anesthesiologists, and points out that there should be a national strategy in the country, that is, before a doctor retires, a good map must be made and early knowledge in which region how many doctors are retiring to allow for continuity and for retired doctors to be replaced by young doctors.
In the last 10 years, about 200 doctors left the country each year, a number that is equal to the annual average of students who finish their medical studies, which means – as many new doctors graduate, the same number leave the country on an annual basis.
