Patients who go for dialysis three times a week at the GOB "8 Septemvri" were left without taxi transportation, their families complain. After the dialysis that lasted for hours, exhausted and without energy, instead of being taken home by taxi as before, they received bus tickets, after the contract that the hospital had concluded with a taxi company expired. Three times a week after the four-hour treatment, these patients now go to the bus stations and wait for the JSP.

- For two years, my father has been undergoing dialysis three times a week. GOB "8 Septemvri" no longer has an agreement with the taxi company that used to bring my father to and from home, and he lives far away, in another neighborhood, and the taxi fare is 400 denars one way. I asked if he could be transferred to another dialysis center where it would be closer to him, but he couldn't because there was no room. The problem is that each dialysis center decides for itself how it will carry out the transportation. And now, through the "Nefron" association, they provide them with bus tickets, but my father is 73 years old and we know what our city transport is like. After several hours of dialysis, going on the bus is not right, Katerina Cvetkova, the daughter of a dialysis patient, told "Sloboden Pechat". 

And the president of the association of citizens with kidney disease "Nefron", Dushko Gjorgiev, confirmed to "Sloboden Pechat" that the contract with the taxi company that transported some of the patients was not extended.

As for transportation in GOB "September 8th", there are changes in the organization of transportation for dialysis patients from 25.10.2024. The contract with the taxi company that transported some of the patients has not been extended. Most of the patients will receive compensation for their own transportation, and for those who have a medical indication, the institution will provide hospital transportation with its own vehicles, we received such a promise from the director. Also, the Nephron Association provides free annual bus tickets for all interested dialysis patients through the Program for preferential use of public city transport of the City of Skopje. The call for registration of users for 2025 is underway. and lasts until December 13, 2024. In the Nephron Association, there were several calls with questions of an informational type, there is no officially submitted petition for the transportation on September 8th from our members, Gjorgiev told us.

The data on concluded public procurements by GOB "8 Septemvri" show that in the past years, this hospital concluded an annual contract for taxi transportation, but this suddenly changed with the change of the director. The contract for taxi transportation has expired, and a new one has not been concluded. "Sloboden Pechat" turned to GOB "8 Septemvri" with questions about why the contract for taxi transportation was not renewed, but we did not receive an answer. The questions related to why the taxi transport was replaced by bus, considering that it does not suit the patients due to the long duration of the treatment and their exhaustion after the treatment, as well as because they live at a greater distance from the hospital.

According to the last contract for taxi transportation, which ended on September 30, 2024, taxi transportation in GOB "8 Septemvri" was intended for 33 patients.

"The holder of the purchase undertakes to transport patients 6 days a week, from Monday to Saturday in two shifts. He should provide air-conditioned vehicles in which the patients will be transported. The patients will be transported from the addresses where the patients live to PHI GOB "8 Septemvri" and vice versa. One patient is treated with hemodialysis three times a week. The holder of the purchase undertakes that the transport of the patients will begin and end in the shortest possible time after the planned route. For patients from the first shift, hemodialysis treatment begins at 7:45 a.m. and ends at 12:13 p.m., and for patients from the second shift, it begins at 30:18 p.m. and ends at XNUMX:XNUMX p.m. The holder of the procurement should group the patients so that a maximum of three patients can be driven in one vehicle and determine the routes depending on the place of residence of the patients, it is written in the contract for the public procurement of taxi transport for dialysis patients that ended before two months.

The Ministry of Health is also silent. Meanwhile, patients are left to fend for themselves.

- For five hours, my father is on machines, they are purifying his blood from poisons. When he comes home, he just bites something and immediately goes to bed. For now, he has to go every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday by bus and leave two hours earlier than the scheduled time, in order to catch the bus. Let's not talk about the return. In the past, patients objected to the transportation being in vans and asked for taxis, because they are exhausted, bus transportation is not adequate. Now I ask my father why they don't come together to speak publicly, he says everyone is outraged. The latest information is that there will no longer be any organized transport, with the rationale that they can use the city transport. How can they leave people who are weak after dialysis and are unable to move with such a disastrous city transport because not everyone is financially able to pay for taxis 3 times a week, he told "Sloboden Pechat" " Cvetkova. 

The transportation of dialysis patients in Macedonia is organized in several ways: with compensation for own transportation (in public health centers), transportation of patients with their own vehicles (vans and adapted vehicles) and agreements with taxi companies (in private dialysis centers ).
Another option for patients in a deteriorating health condition is the use of transportation by Red Cross transport vehicles with an escort depending on the agreements with the municipalities and hospital transport.