North Macedonia receives 100 ambulances; Klekovski says drivers are the biggest shortage

North Macedonia has taken delivery of 100 new ambulance vehicles that will be distributed across health institutions nationwide, Health Minister Sasho Klekovski announced at an event presenting the fleet. The ambulances are equipped with ECG, respiratory support and defibrillators, and include a comfort zone with adjustable ventilation and climate control.

At present there are 140 active ambulance vehicles in the country. Sixty of the new vehicles will be allocated to increase the capacity of Emergency Medical Assistance, while the remainder will replace worn-out units. The public tender for the purchase covered the 100 vehicles and the procurement cost is €7.5 million.

Distribution criteria and immediate use

"The analysis has been carried out and with clear criteria established for distribution. These vehicles will be put into use immediately after the necessary training of teams for the new capabilities these vehicles offer," Klekovski said, describing how locations will be chosen based on demographics, territory covered, annual number of interventions, transport volumes and vehicle condition.

Asked about personnel shortages in Emergency Medical Assistance, Klekovski said the ministry has completed a national-level staffing analysis by category — drivers, doctors and nurses — including projections for retirements through 2030. "The tightest bottleneck are the drivers, and based on those analyses prepared at the Ministry of Health we will communicate with the relevant health institutions and with the Ministry of Finance," he added.

Beyond new vehicles, the minister outlined structural reforms planned for emergency care. "However, vehicles are not the only thing we need to change in emergency medical assistance. Essentially, this time we want to make more changes and reforms in emergency medical assistance. The first step has already begun, which is separating Emergency Medical Assistance into a distinct service from the Health Centre Skopje, with the intention that this will be extended to the national level. We are preparing to adopt national triage standards, which should lead to uniform procedures across all emergency medical services and, at some point, to introduce a national dispatch centre to coordinate different teams. Citizens do not know municipal boundaries of health centres and accordingly we must respond regardless of where someone is from, the closest available to arrive on time. One of the planned reforms is the gradual introduction of paramedics into emergency teams, which would free doctors for urgent centres, because emergency medical assistance should transport patients to a designated urgent care centre," he said.

Klekovski also announced talks to procure an additional 50 ambulances next year. He and ministry officials warned that, despite the new vehicles, North Macedonia currently lacks 52 emergency teams and that the number of operational teams has been declining year by year.

Photo: Ministerstvo za zdravstvo)