First patients will be admitted to the old Sistina hospital as early as Monday, the Acibadem Sistina clinic informed.  The facility has been converted into the Ibis Styles hotel by its owner Jordan Orce Kamcev, after he built the much larger Acibadem Sistina clinic on the bank of the Vardar river. But since the start of the coronavirus epidemic, Kamcev has been offering to turn it back into a clinic.

With the declaration of a state of crisis in Macedonia, the Government has the power to manage private clinics. The three largest such clinics, Sistina, Zan Mitrev and Remedika offered to jointly provide staff and other resources to turn the old Sistina clinic into a 100 bed infectious diseases clinic. The Healthcare Ministry will have final say into which patients will be sent to this new facility. The Ministry was badly embarrassed by daily pleas from patients who solicit donations to leave the badly functioning public hospitals and be treated in one of the private clinics that offer Covid-19 treatment.