Healthcare Minister Venko Filipce claims that the Government is close to fulfilling one of its most extravagant pre-election promises – to increase salaries in the healthcare system to 100.000 denars per month.

Filipce said that, if you count the extra pay doctors receive for working overtime, some specialists are already being paid 100.000 denars a month (1.600 EUR).

We pay a lot of money to treat patients abroad, 50 million EUR per year are spent on this. If we keep specialists at home and have them treat patients we will be able to reduce spending, Filipce said.

The Healthcare Minister claimed that he is preparing a push to bring Macedonian doctors who have left the country back to Macedonia. The healthcare system is facing a major drain as doctors move abroad, mainly to European Union countries.