The public in North Macedonia is closely following two trials against doctors from the Radiotherapy and Oncology Clinic in Skopje, after journalistic investigations revealed that they had provided inappropriate therapy to cancer patients who later died, and resold the drugs abroad.

After the scandal was uncovered in 2023, a criminal investigation began, resulting in charges against four doctors and one financial director of the clinic.

In July 2025, a first trial began against doctors who are accused of "negligent treatment of patients" between 2018 and 2022. The Prosecutor’s Office, through medical expertise, determined that they applied an inappropriate method of treatment to 29 patients, contrary to current oncology guidelines, and prescribed them drugs which seriously damaged the health of the patients, most of whom died.

In a second trial, Dr. Nikola Vasev and financial director Nehat Nuhi are accused of fraud and embezzlement between 2018 and 2022.

According to the indictment, they illegally procured medicines, concealed them through fictitious tenders and sold them for cash, thus damaging the budget by almost 36 million euros.
Three years ago, journalistic investigations by weekly Fokus showed examples in which, instead of real therapy, patients were just given physiological solutions. In some cases, they were not even treated, although this was recorded in the medical documentation.

Doctors and nurses created fictitious medical histories in the names of deceased Macedonian patients. Instead, the stolen medicines were sold to foreign patients.

A total of four oncologists, including director Vasev, Meri Peshevska from the Breast Department and Dr. Simonida Crvenkova and Dragan Jakimovski from the Lung Department, have been charged. The defendants have been in custody since January 2024.

In May 2025, when the investigation by the Prosecutor’s Office ended, Chief Prosecutor Ljupčo Kocevski informed that in order to ensure the impartiality of the procedure, the Prosecutor’s Office managed to obtain medical expert reports from Serbia and Slovenia, which related to different segments of the treatment of Oncology patients.

"From all the medical histories reviewed by the investigation’s technical advisors, 65 histories of oncology patients were selected and analyzed by experts. In many cases, according to the opinions of experts from the profession, both from Slovenia and Serbia, the therapy was not given as prescribed by the protocols," Kocevski said at the time.

Although the trial began in July, it was postponed to September, due absence of one of the defendants. In the beginning, Judge Snezana Markovska informed that the defense’s objections to the expert reports prepared in Slovenia and Serbia were rejected as unfounded.

During the opening statements, Nikola Vasev stated before the court in Skopje that he did not feel guilty. Oncologist Meri Peshevska pleaded guilty.
Peshevska told the court that she was not sure she continued the therapy for the seven patients because, as she said, her stamp was on the counter at that time and she did so in order to speed up the process and avoid waiting for patients.
"I conscientiously and responsibly claim that I left my password in the system and the stamp on the counter and that interns used them, and I accept my blame," said Peshevska.
The media also report personal stories from families who lost loved ones due to negligent treatment at that Clinic. Julija Macievska, mother of the deceased patient Adriana Nachevska, was also a witness at the trial.

Answering questions from the Prosecutor, she said that her daughter began treatment at the Oncology Clinic in September 2020 and for the first time noticed that her health condition was deteriorating after she started receiving immunotherapies.
"Doctor Vasev is charismatic, and when he wants to take responsibility away, he makes jokes. My daughter believed she would be fine. The last week, the doctors were nowhere to be found. She didn’t die of breast cancer, they killed her with those chemicals. I don’t need money, I lost my child, we will seek material damages and I will donate it. He knew what he was doing, but somewhere along the way he lost his humanity," Macievska testified.
The case was discovered by journalist Irena Mulachka from the weekly magazine Fokus, who wrote a series of articles, for which she received the first EU award for investigative journalism. She also wrote about other abuse cases in healthcare.
In several interviews, she stated that such malpractice must stop immediately, that institutions must investigate and ensure it never happens again.
"Whether this scandal will change anything in Macedonian healthcare for the first time, time will tell. Will those doctors, who think they are gods, work for the health of patients?”, she wrote in a column.
In 2023, when the scandal was first announced, several protests were held by citizens who demanded justice for the victims of the Oncology Clinic.