The Clinical Hospital in Bitola has restored osteoporosis diagnostics. After more than two decades of continuous use, the old DEXA machine (for measuring bone density) stopped working last September - leaving a temporary gap in this important service. Now, with the hospital's own funds, a new modern machine has been bought.

That's good news for patients in Bitola, and for the region. Osteoporosis is a silent disease - it gives no warning until a fracture happens. Women over 50 and men over 65 are the groups that should be screened regularly. Without a DEXA machine, the region had to send patients to Skopje or other centres. Now it's possible at home again.

The most interesting line in this story is „bought with the institution's own funds". Translation: the hospital organised the capital investment by itself. That's the institutional reality of Macedonian healthcare in 2026 - regional facilities can't wait for budget financing, they have to find the money themselves. Sometimes that's a donation. Sometimes savings from operating funds. Sometimes a loan.

The hospital says the machine is „the latest generation" and provides „greater precision and security in diagnostic findings". Marketing language - but in the end, if the patient gets an accurate diagnosis, that's what matters.

For someone in Bitola this is also a reminder. Nine months without the service means nine months of patients who either had to travel, or simply postponed their diagnostics. How many fractures could have been avoided in that period? Nobody has the calculation. That's the hidden cost of obsolete equipment in regional hospitals.

For Macedonian healthcare the question is the next one - how many other regional hospitals in the country have a diagnostic service interruption that nobody is registering in the statistics? Skopje's clinics have more resources, bigger budgets, and easier replacement options. Bitola, Tetovo, Kumanovo, Prilep - they each have one machine per region. When it breaks, the whole region waits.