Kuzeska: Alarming situation at the Oncology Clinic after the floods, accountability must be demanded for the disaster

LSDM has raised the alarm over what the party says is an extremely serious situation that poses a direct risk to the health and safety of both patients and medical staff.

LSDM spokesperson Bogdanka Kuzeska said that after the storm in Skopje, the Oncology Clinic was flooded, while the radiotherapy equipment was put out of operation.

According to her, water also penetrated the areas where radioactive iodine therapy is administered.

“This is not ordinary rainwater, but a burst sewer line! This means that the most vulnerable group of patients is facing a double, horrifying danger. The danger from radiation, due to water entering the room where radioactive iodine therapy is being administered. As well as the biological danger from the spread of septic, fecal water throughout the clinic. The information we have shows that the only bunker isolated with lead walls has been completely flooded, and there is no other such alternative space in the Clinic,” she said.

Emphasizing that radioactive iodine has a half-life of around 8 days, the opposition party is demanding immediate answers from the management of the Oncology Clinic and from the Radiation Protection Directorate.

“Was this crisis situation addressed in time, or was chaos allowed to endanger human lives? Where are the patients who have already received iodine therapy physically located at this moment?

If the only safe bunker has been flooded, are these patients among other people?

Is there radioactive iodine contamination outside the designated areas?

Has urgent and full decontamination been carried out in the areas where these patients stayed after the flooding?

And finally, has the safety of the entire staff and the hundreds of patients currently passing through the Clinic’s corridors been put at risk?

Who will bear responsibility for the possible biological contamination caused by the spill of fecal water in a hospital institution where patients with compromised immunity are treated?” Kuzeska asked.

She stressed that patients’ health and the safety of healthcare workers must not be left at the mercy of deteriorated infrastructure and incompetence.

LSDM is demanding urgent and transparent answers, as well as the immediate assumption of responsibility for this disaster.