Today, the President of the Republic of North Macedonia and the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, Stevo Pendarovski, together with the Chief of General Staff, Lieutenant General Vasko Gjrchinovski visited the Military Medical Support Battalion service personnel.
Since declaring the virus COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic, the personnel of the Military Medical Center have been supporting public health organizations in their fight against the coronavirus. In March, upon request of the Ministry of Health, a team from the Center set up a mobile hospital on the plateau in front of the Infectious Clinic, at the Clinical Center “Mother Theresa”, in order to increase the hospitalization capacity in case of having alarming numbers of COVID-19 patients.
The military medical personnel from this unit are deployed in the Public Health Center and GCH “8th September”. The Unit Commander, Colonel Irena Mineva informed President Pendarovski that the deployed personnel are experienced medical staff who used to work in the former military hospital. Due to their expertise they have been assigned to work in the Intensive Care Unit and in the shock room where severe COVID-19 patients are hospitalized.
During his visit of the battalion, President Pendarovski had a video call with Staff Sergeant 1st class Fatime Mustafovska, who has been deployed to the team in GCH “8th September” and used to work at the surgical ward in the former military hospital until the transformation of the Army. President Pendarovski said that working with critically ill patients is quite specific, therefore he pointed out:
“We have nothing left but to believe that COVID-19 pandemics will be over soon and all health workers and all other people who are involved in the fight against it and who manage the consequences of the pandemics can be relieved of duty, and can stay away from high risks and stress.
Colonel Mineva informed President Pendarovski about the unit’s work, mission and future plans.
President Pendarovski says that the Military Medical Center is necessary to be adequately equipped and excellently functional just as any NATO member country including our country.
The main mission of the Center is to maintain and improve health in order to maintain necessary level of combat readiness of the Army service personnel. In addition, it is also responsible for Ground Maneuver Hospital Role 2. In 2014 GMH Role 2 was evaluated according to the NATO operational capabilities standards and it was highly assessed according to all criteria. Moreover, Military Medical Center personnel were part of a few peacekeeping missions including “ALTEA” in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, “ISAF” in Kabul and Maymana, Islamic State of Afghanistan.
