Skopje, 8 May 2025 (MIA) — There are nine linear accelerators—devices used to treat cancer—at public health institutions nationwide but only four of them are in service, according to a new performance audit report on medical equipment operation and maintenance released Thursday by the State Audit Office.

Although there are linear accelerators at the Shtip and Bitola hospitals as well as Skopje's September 8 City Hospital, only the Oncology and Radiology Clinic provides linac radiation therapy for patients with cancer, the performance audit showed.

Auditors also reviewed service performance information on public health institutions' use of advanced medical equipment including computerized tomography scanners; angiography machines; mammography systems for traditional analogue imaging as well as stereotactic and tomo-guided biopsies; PET/CT scanners; and robotic rehabilitation devices between 2021 and 2023.

They found that only 68% of the audited equipment was in service — yet it was "often being used even beyond its foreseen capacities." 

Out of the medical equipment worth 57,7 million euros in public health institutions subject to the audit, equipment worth 13 million euros was not in service at all and equipment worth 5.5 million euros had not been used to its capacity.

One of the reasons for this, according to the State Audit Office, is the lack of trained medical personnel to operate these machines. Between 2021 and 2023 alone, the number of radiologists in public health care system dropped from 88 to 79 and the number of specialists at the Institute of Radiology dropped from 30 to 23.

Also, the performance audit showed that the 16.2 million euros' worth of medical equipment procured between 2021 and 2023 did not respond to the actual needs and priorities of the health institutions nor was it procured taking into consideration the available space and the number of skilled health workers.

To overcome these problems, the State Audit Office says it has issued recommendations to the relevant institutions on how to use the available medical equipment to provide better health services to the public. mr/