Artificial hips await over 650 patients, in three main public health institutions there has been a significant increase in the number of interventions, and access to hip and knee replacement surgeries is significantly improving, the Health Insurance Fund (HIF) director SashoKlekovski told reporters on Thursday.
He underlined that there has been a significant increase in hip and knee surgeries. There were a total of 4,044 interventions in 2025. There was an increase of 9.9 percent for the period 2023-2025. This involved 14 public health institutions. Klekovski stresses that the country is solid in hip replacements, but in terms of knee replacement interventions it still lags behind the region.
“These figures confirm that access to hip and knee replacement surgeries is significantly improving. The opening of the operating blocks at the Clinical Center and the September 8th General Hospital and further development of knee arthroplasty are to follow,” Klekovski stressed.
The HIF head also addressed several recommendations. Thus, in addition to the opening of the operating blocks at the Clinical Center and September 8th General Hospital, it is recommended to have a continuous supply chain, tenders to be announced at least four months before the expiration of the contract, group/framework procurement for managing purchases and supplies versus waiting lists, standardization of clinical pathways, reduction of variations in the average hospital stay between institutions, centralized waiting register with a maximum period for non-urgent interventions – recommendation: up to three months.
Klekovskipoints out that the analysis does not include patients from private healthcare institutions in the country.
