The Clinic for Traumatology, Orthopedic Diseases, Anesthesia, Reanimation, Intensive Care and Emergency Center (TOARILUC) refused the request for free access to information of a public nature by the journalist of "Sloboden Pechat" Miroslava Simonovska to receive a photocopy of the report on the measured level of formaldehyde in the operating rooms in this public health facility. The management of the Clinic, instructed by the legal service, allows Simonovska to only inspect the report, i.e. to go and see it in the hospital premises, with an explicit note that she must not take notes from the report on a sheet of paper or take photos of it. the finding of formaldehyde levels measured by mobile phone.

It is a measurement report made by a private licensed company. The company measured formaldehyde levels in the operating rooms of the public health facility, and was paid for it from the Clinic's account. Therefore, we believe that the report should not be classified, nor should the journalist be prevented from receiving it in its original form in order to further present the findings to experts in the field who could provide a relevant opinion on whether these levels of formaldehyde are permissible, how they might be found in operating rooms and what is their effect on patients.

Instead, TOARILUC drafted a decision following our request for free access to public information stating that it is partially denied, although in fact completely denied, due to the fact that without a photocopy of an extensive report and with an explicit prohibition of taking notes on a sheet of paper - such insight is pointless, only proforma and cannot fulfill the basic goal of analytical journalism.

"We inform you that the expert findings from the measurements carried out by the legal entity DPTU Premium Safety Solutions 77 DOO - Skopje are limited in the area of ​​reproduction and copying, and thus their sharing in the specified manner is also limited without prior written consent from the laboratory, i.e. written approval from the company. Given that we currently do not have written consent from the laboratory, nor written approval from the company to share the results of the measurements performed either as a photocopy, or as a transcript, or as an electronic record, we inform you that you may inspect these findings in the premises of the Clinic", TOARILUC responded to our request and stated that it is necessary to specify the day and time when we would like to do the inspection.

That would not have been a problem, but we were informed by phone by the management of the public health facility that during the inspection we are not allowed to take notes on a sheet of paper from the report or take pictures of it with a mobile phone. We asked the director, professor Dr. Marija Srceva, how many pages the report has, to which she said that it is about several separate reports.

Such voluminous expert material has no journalistic value if it is not interpreted by experts in toxicology, chemists and physicists, who can translate it into understandable language and explain how formaldehyde found itself in the halls and whether those concentrations in which it was found have an impact on patients and what kind.

"Sloboden Pechat" filed a complaint with the Agency for the Protection of the Right to Free Access to Public Information about the decision to allow us to inspect, but to be refused a photocopy of this important measurement, because we believe that this way prevents the work of journalists in the public interest.

Earlier, the Minister of Health Arben Taravari confirmed to our journalist's question that formaldehyde was measured in the halls, but said that he did not officially receive the report from the Ministry. The question is whether TOARILUC was not sent to the minister for inspection, or whether he also joins in the classification of public data for which public health pays from the budget of health insurers.