New Clinical Hospital in Shtip still unfinished after more than ten years

More than a decade after construction began, the new Clinical Hospital in Shtip remains unfinished and empty, despite changes of governments and repeated promises to complete the project.

Work on the hospital started under Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski; the cornerstone was laid on 3 March 2016. At the time then-interim Prime Minister Emil Dimitriev and Health Minister Nikola Todorov said the investment would cost €56 million, with about €30 million allocated for construction and the remainder for medical equipment, and predicted the facility would be operational within two to three years.

Stop-and-go construction, legal disputes and bankruptcy

Initially the works progressed quickly: the shell was completed and the Greek contractor Interakt together with the main subcontractor GP Beton began internal installations and façade work. After the government change in 2017 the pace slowed. Disagreements between the investor and contractors, terminated contracts and ensuing court and out-of-court proceedings halted progress. The situation worsened when GP Beton went into bankruptcy, which stopped not only the Shtip hospital works but also projects on the FINKI faculty building and other constructions the firm was executing; many employees lost jobs or emigrated.

The COVID-19 crisis in 2020 further shifted priorities toward modular hospitals in larger cities and the Shtip hospital project dwindled to the background. Ministers who followed did not launch sustained initiatives to finish the site. Between 2017 and 2025 the project passed through numerous political and administrative changes: four prime ministers (Nikola Gruevski, Zoran Zaev, Dimitar Kovacevski and Hristijan Mickoski), three interim prime ministers (Emil Dimitriev, Oliver Spasovski and Talat Xhaferi) and eight health ministers, many of whom served less than a year.

Several health ministers visited Shtip but most focused on staff recruitment rather than the exposed, partly open building. In some blocks the hospital stands without windows or doors and parts of the roof are missing, leaving the structure exposed to weather.

On 30 July this year Health Minister Sasho Klekovski, Shtip Mayor Ivan Jordanov and the hospital board chair Dr. Biljana Eftimova inspected the site together with representatives of the World Bank and the European Investment Bank. Klekovski reported that the executed works amount to roughly 30–40 percent of the project and that the government regards completion as a top priority.

“After a three-year total halt of the works, as the Ministry and as the Government we are striving to resume the works and finally put this capital facility into operation in the interest of about 300,000 citizens, especially in Eastern Macedonia. All tender procedures which have an international character are underway and in two to three months there should be an outcome for selection and signing of a contract with a proven international partner. At the same time, procedures for procurement of the new equipment are being prepared, especially for the operating units foreseen by the project for construction of the new Clinical Hospital in Shtip,” Klekovski said at the end of July.

According to the minister, the government has adopted a new plan and project valued at €109 million, backed by the World Bank, to fully complete and equip the hospital; the plan also includes a new building for the Faculty of Medical Sciences that is intended to supply personnel for the hospital.

Photo: SDK.MK