100 new ambulances: the emergency fleet grows from 140 to about 200 vehicles
Of the 100 vehicles, 60 expand capacity and 40 replace old ones. The minister says the driver shortage is the most critical gap.
On October 20 the government presented the 100 new ambulances for emergency medical services across the country. According to reports, 60 of them expand capacity while the rest replace aging vehicles. The fleet thus grows from 140 active vehicles to about 200. Talks are also under way for 50 more vehicles, which would arrive in 2027.
The value of the purchase and the supplier were not stated in the reports I checked. Nor has it been published exactly where each vehicle goes. The ministry says the distribution follows criteria: demographics, coverage area, annual interventions, volume of patient transport, and the age and condition of vehicles.
Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski said the new vehicles should allow “faster arrival and much more precise intervention”, thanks to their equipment. He added that he hopes they will be used as little as possible, since that would mean fewer cases needing emergency care, and acknowledged: “not everything is solved with these 100 vehicles”.
He placed the purchase in a wider frame and listed other recent vehicle buys: 120 for the Interior Ministry, about 100 for the Post Office, 53 for municipal sanitation and 150 electric buses expected soon. He also announced health investments with the World Bank and the European Investment Bank for clinical facilities in Shtip, Kičevo and Tetovo, with approval around the end of Q1 next year and the first project starting around mid-year.
How quickly will the difference be felt? That depends on more than the vehicles themselves. According to the health minister, the most critical bottleneck among health personnel is the shortage of drivers. A reform is planned to gradually add paramedics to crews so that physicians are freed for emergency departments, and the ministry has analyzed staffing needs for drivers, physicians and nurses, with retirement projections to 2030. Teams will be trained on the new equipment before the vehicles enter service.
The minister also announced a national dispatch center that would send the fastest available team regardless of municipal boundaries. That center is still planned, not operating, so its effect on arrival times can be measured only once it starts working.
What is not known? Neither the price, nor the supplier, nor the city-by-city distribution has been published. There is no public figure for the current average arrival time, so it cannot be checked whether and by how much it will improve. It is also unclear when crews will be trained and when the vehicles will go into service.
What does it mean? A vehicle is a necessary but not sufficient condition. Until drivers, paramedics and the dispatch center are sorted out, the new vehicles mainly renew an aging fleet, and any improvement in arrival times will be proven only by data from the coming months.
MKNews Hub · Macedonia · October 21, 2026
