Skopje, 19 March 2025 (MIA) - The transport of patients abroad will be completed today and we will fully focus on planning the next steps in the country, since treatment of certain patients will be long-term, said Health Insurance Fund (HIF) director Sasho Klekovski on Wednesday.

"We must prepare ourselves to bring some of the patients back to the country and be capable to resume their treatment here," Klekovski told a press conference.

As of tomorrow, he added, we will focus on the next steps, which may last a year or two.

"In order to prevent a pile-up of other health services for citizens, we would like to put the injured in the Kochani fire in two hospitals," said Klekovski.

Asked if a burn unit, which was closed in 2016, would reopen in the Skopje-based "St. Naum of Ohrid" clinic for surgical diseases, he said experts in the field should have a say on this.

"No country can cope with such an accident by itself and that is why the European solidarity mechanisms are activated so that injured people are transported to other countries," said Klekovski.

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