English
State prosecutors filed charges against the former head of the Oncology Clinic in Skopje, the organizational director and four doctors, over the shocking corruption scandal involving chemotherapy drugs.
The two directors are charged with manipulating procurement of chemotherapy drugs causing extra profits of over 7 million EUR for the companies procuring the drugs. The total damage of the manipulated contracts to the state budget is estimated at over 37 million EUR between 2018 and 2022.
Prosecutors noted nine cases where patients signed off on receiving drugs that they never got. Due to the mismatch between the quantity of issued drugs and drugs that went through the warehouse, the organization director is charged with abuses of 210,000 EUR.
The four doctor are charged with causing financial damages to the clinic by issuing obviously inappropriate or harmful therapies to dozens of patients. In some instances, new and expensive chemotherapy drugs were issued to patients in clear violation of the treatment instructions. In other cases, these drugs were given to patients where the doctor did not list their weight and height, or where it was clear that the drugs would be ineffective.
The scandal caused outrage in the public, with patients protesting that they were given water instead of the expensive drugs that were then sold on the black market, that vials were diluted to cover up the illegal sale of drugs, and that they were forced to pay bribes due to the shortage of drugs.
