Skopje, 27 August 2025 (MIA) — After cardiologist Sashko Kedev recently alleged that some hospitals in the country were doing unnecessary heart surgeries and implanting patients with stents to get money from the state, Health Insurance Fund head Sasho Klekovski called a press conference Wednesday to announce an expert committee would be investigating the allegations.

Three foreign doctors were on the committee, Klekovski said, stressing that this guaranteed objective findings.

"Top doctors from all clinics are on the committee," he said, adding that the 15-member committee also included two representatives from the Health Insurance Fund. The experts would go over all the medical records available, Klekovski said.

He also urged members of the public who believed they had undergone any unnecessary cardiovascular procedures to lodge a complaint to the Ministry of Health. "I believe it will be much easier if there are complaints. Specific complaints," he said.

Klekovski said the Health Insurance Fund financed cardiological procedures such as inserting stents, tiny tubular devices used to prop open heart arteries after a clot-clearing procedure called balloon angioplasty, in public hospitals only.

However, the heart surgeries funded by the state were mostly performed in the Zhan Mitrev and Acibadem Sistina private hospitals as well as the University Clinic of Cardiac Surgery, he said.

The 2025 budget for the five hospitals specializing in cardiology and cardiac surgery — the University Clinic of Cardiology, the University Clinic of Cardiac Surgery, the Ohrid Cardiology Hospital, Acibadem Sistina and Zhan Mitrev — was around 40 million euros, Klekovski said.

Another five million euros was allocated to the cardiology hospitals in Tetovo, Shtip, Bitola, Strumica and the September 8 Hospital in Skopje. Of the total of 45 million euros, he said, 26 million euros were spent on procedures in public health care and 19 million euros on procedures in private hospitals.

in 2024, the Health Insurance Fund paid for 9,404 cardiovascular interventions, including 6,876 in public hospitals and 2,528 in private hospitals.

"We need to be aware that heart failure mortality rate is around 60 percent," Klekovski said.

The Health Insurance Fund covered the costs for two heart transplants in 2025, he said. One of them was performed in Zagreb.

In response to a reporter's question why the surgery had not been done here, Klekovski said: "I think it was a child under 13 years of age and no one here was willing to do the surgery." mr/