The Children’s Clinic in Skopje continues its practice of discriminating male parents, who are generally not allowed to accompany their children during treatment. The new rules in the clinic will allow fathers to accompany children but only if there is a room available with other fathers. If the rooms have children with mothers, then the fathers of other children will not be allowed.

My two children had high fever. The older one also vomitted. My wife remained at home with the younger one, but the older had to be hospitalized because of dehydration. I wanted to stay with him but they wouldn’t let me. There was a bed available, but the room already had a mother with her child there, one father of a hospitalized six year old said, adding that this practice amounts to gender discrimination.

Another parent, with a child with disabilities, said that he wanted to care for the child during hospitalization since his wife can’t lift the child any more. But the hospital would not allow it. “She got hernia from the weight but the rules still remained in place for us”, the father says.