Klekovski: Mihailova case concerns justice, not healthcare
Klekovski said he asked the State Sanitary and Health Inspectorate to supplement its report and that violations were found; a bilateral 2026–2028 cooperation plan was signed in Sofia.
Health Minister Sasho Klekovski said that during his meeting in Sofia with his Bulgarian counterpart Katya Ivkova they reached a tacit agreement that the matter of Iva Mihailova is not a health issue but belongs to the domain of justice. Klekovski made the remark after journalists asked whether the two ministers had discussed Mihailova's case.
"Basically, we reached a tacit agreement that the matter of I.M. is not a health issue, but a matter of justice, because the person is a fugitive from justice wanted on an international warrant. As this matter belongs to justice and not to health — we did not discuss it," Klekovski said after the handover of 100 new ambulance vehicles.
Request to expand the inspectorate report
When asked whether the report by the State Sanitary and Health Inspectorate (DSZI), initiated by the Clinic of Neurology regarding Mihailova and the treating physician Ivan Barbov, is complete, the minister said he had asked for the document to be supplemented with medical records from all health institutions where the patient had been treated.
"I requested a supplement to the DSZI report because the entire pathway and the medical procedures that the patient underwent in health institutions in Macedonia were not followed, and I additionally requested that oversight be extended to a private health institution where she was treated in the interim. At this stage, violations have already been identified and expert supervision has been requested for the medical part of the report," he said.
Klekovski and Katya Ivkova signed a bilateral cooperation plan covering 2026–2028 during the Sofia visit. The minister said the inspectorate's review will now cover both public and private facilities cited in the patient's care history.
Doctor Ivan Barbov, who treated Mihailova at the Clinic of Neurology, recently said he had not known an investigation was ongoing into a fatal traffic accident connected to the patient and that he recommended treatment in Bulgaria because she holds Bulgarian citizenship and health insurance there, and because the closest country with the treatment methods he advised was Bulgaria. "I recommended treatment of Iva Mihailova in Bulgaria because she is a citizen of that country; I did not know about the proceedings regarding the traffic accident," Barbov said.
Photo: Fejsbuk
