LDP demands urgent reforms to expand women's cancer screening

On 30 October 2026 the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) staged a symbolic guerrilla action in Skopje to demand systemic changes that would expand cancer-screening coverage for women.

“While those in charge save on health, women in North Macedonia face a harsh reality and deadly statistics — according to the State Audit Office, screening mammography reaches only 0.8 to 5.4 percent of women, and cervical cancer screening only 10.3 to 15.5 percent. This is not ordinary statistics; behind these numbers are human lives lost in a system without care,” said the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party and member of the Assembly of North Macedonia, Monika Zajkova.

Demands for immediate reform

The party listed concrete, time-sensitive measures it wants the Ministry of Health and the government to adopt. LDP called for guaranteed appointments for preventive exams, an automatic invitation system for screening, and one paid day off per year for preventive testing.

LDP also proposed that the state cover the cost of private care when the public health system cannot provide a timely appointment, arguing that illness does not wait and administrative barriers must not decide life or death.

Finally, the party demanded monthly public reporting from the Ministry of Health on how many appointments are available for mammography, breast ultrasound and Pap tests, how many citizens are waiting and the length of those waits, and an urgent diagnostic pathway whenever cancer is suspected instead of months of waiting in corridors.

Party representatives said the action was meant to draw public attention to what they called avoidable losses and to pressure authorities to turn screening from an occasional campaign into a guaranteed right.

Photo: press material from the event