Sv. Erazmo in Ohrid to open new wing and four modern operating rooms by New Year
Health Minister Sasho Klekovski set an end-of-year target for the new wing, backed by over €2 million in mixed funding.
The Special Hospital for Orthopaedics and Traumatology "Sv. Erazmo" in Ohrid is scheduled to open a new wing with four modern operating rooms by the New Year, Health Minister Sasho Klekovski announced. The expansion is intended to raise surgical capacity and improve patient care in the Ohrid-Struga region.
Funding and timeline
Klekovski said the financial framework to complete the new wing has been closed after more than a year of work with the hospital's management. The investment will exceed two million euros and will be financed from several sources: the Health Insurance Fund, the hospital's budget, other state institutions and donations from socially responsible companies.
"A contractor has been selected who should complete the construction work, and regarding procurement procedures for equipment — some are underway, others will be renewed. I would set a deadline until the New Year, effectively to put the whole new hospital into use," Klekovski said, setting an end-of-year target for the project.
He noted that the facility's current capacity of roughly one and a half operating rooms will increase to four modern theatres, a step Klekovski described as closing a long-standing chapter: "With that, this ordeal will be finished, which was started a very long time ago; some of you, I presume, were children when all this began."
Klekovski also highlighted clinical progress at the institution: "In two years there has been a 40 percent increase in the number of hip interventions, and 'Sv. Erazmo' is already among the three most significant institutions performing such operations together with the Clinical Center in Skopje and the '8 September' hospital." He underlined the need to increase knee procedures as well.
Hospital director Hari Shokarovski described the project as another major investment cycle to complete a long-running programme and equip the new operating rooms and other clinical spaces. "We will strive to become perhaps the most representative institution in the fields of orthopaedics and neurosurgery. With the support of the Government we want to become a reference center in orthopaedics and neurosurgery," he said, expressing confidence the works will be finished on schedule and that Sv. Erazmo will serve patients from across the country and the wider region.
Photo: press material from the event
