Skopje, 28 May 2025 (MIA) — Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski announced Wednesday the government's plans to reconstruct the Kochani hospital as well as schools, sports facilities, parks and roads in the town as part of a project tentatively named Kochani 2030 he had discussed with the EU's chief Ursula von der Leyen.

"I talked to the president of the European Commission about doing a project together and making a clear plan for Kochani. Maybe we will name it Kochani 2030," PM Mickoski said.

"We will invest huge sums of money in reconstructing buildings such as the Kochani hospital as well as other infrastructure.

"We are planning a huge project that will be carried out by this government for the residents of Kochani," he said.

Mickoski was responding to a reporter's question about whether the Kochani hospital's budget would be increased.

The hospital has been providing medical care to many of the 200 injured in the March 16 fire in Kochani's Pulse nightclub that killed 62 people.

The prime minister said the government was focused on helping the Kochani burn patients "since day one." 

"Not a single patient will be left not taken care of and not a single patient will be left untreated the way they deserve," Mickoski said.

He said special medical teams were being sent to Kochani to provide care to the injured.

"As for the conditions at the Kochani hospital, I regret to say that the conditions in some other hospitals in Macedonia are even worse. Regrettably. And, also regrettably, in the past 11 months, we have not been able to renovate all the hospitals, all that has been destroyed over the past decades. But these people are absolutely our first priority and we have shown this since day one."

"We did all we could so they would be safely taken care of outside the country and then safely return," Mickoski said.

Unfortunately, he said, two patients of those receiving medical care abroad had died.

"Considering our rapid response, maybe this is a lot, maybe it is a little. Any one human life lost is one too many, but we are trying to focus on doing everything we can in our power as a government," he said. mr/