The mayor of Skopje, Orce Gjorgjievski, will meet next week with Health Minister Azir Aliu to decide when the tender for the prefab garages at the Mother Teresa Clinical Center will finally be opened. A story already over a year old. And not a single garage in sight.

The contract for the garages was signed between the Health Ministry and the City of Skopje on March 7, 2026. All very tidy. Ritual photo op, full media presence. The contract envisions 15 years of construction and operation, with 10 percent of the garages' total revenue going to the City. The first phase: two modern prefab parking structures with at least 500 spaces.

Since the signing - almost three months have passed. The tender procedure hasn't even begun. The expected opening date - „the second half of next year", meaning 2027. That's at least 18 months from signing to a parked car. Standard Macedonian rhythm - but for patients and medical staff trying every day to park at the Clinical Center, it's eternity.

Gjorgjievski explains the timing in terms of „priorities". First, expropriations for Momin Potok; then the „Boris Trajkovski" boulevards (with the storm drains heading to Dračevo); then the „Ljubljanska" bridge; then a few more projects - and then the Clinical Center. The logic of „we can't do everything at once". Understandable - but provoking. Why does the Clinical Center come after the Luna Park?

For citizens reaching for urgent medical care, the parking at the Clinical Center is a daily agony. With the enormous patient flow through that complex, the parking problem isn't aesthetic - it's operational. Doctors miss the start of their shifts because they can't find a spot. Families drop patients at the entrance and then drive in circles for kilometers looking for parking. Different from unregulated streets in the city center, sure - but the same kind of „deferred infrastructure" that Skopje has been managing for decades. Nothing new. Just a new contract that will be tested in 18 months.