New leftist coalition has set making a quality health system affordable for all as a main priority
TIRANA, Oct. 7 – Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama made it clear this week that he wants the health system in the country would undergo a total reform to make it more efficient. Rama made the comments in a meeting with the staff of the country’s largest hospital, the Mother Teresa Tirana University Health Center.
The situation in the country’s hospitals has deteriorated badly, he said. People find a very bad environment and many of the most vulnerable parts of the society are unable to get proper services.
The new leftist coalition has set making a quality health system affordable for all as a main priority during its four-year mandate. They have said that the whole population will be able to enjoy the services in the hospitals without any payments. The funding for the health system will be taken out of the other taxes, they say.
The new administration also says it will make efforts to fight corruption in the health system and find a way how to compete with the private hospitals. There may be the case that private hospitals will also be funded by the government and thus be affordable for the people.
“It is hard to find in Albania another sector like healthcare that is in total ruin,” said Rama in a press conference after meeting with hospital staff. “With the new system we will turn hospitals in places of solidarity, not just for diagnosing disease.”
Healthcare reform was a key component of the campaign in the last elections. The former government said that promising people free, quality healthcare in public hospitals was not possible under Albania’s conditions.
A recent study shows that the public’s evaluation of public and private healthcare with a majority of citizens saying that private healthcare offers indeed a good quality, 42 percent, whereas again the majority said the quality of public healthcare as low or very low – 65 percent.
