World Bank program aims to help improve quality, access and efficiency
TIRANA, March 2 – The World Bank has given Albania 32 million euros to help improve its healthcare system. That is part of the project that will be also funded from the Albanian government as well.
The project will support improving the efficiency of care in selected hospitals in Albania, improving the management of information in the health system, and increasing financial access to health services.
“Key health system performance indicators in Albania are mixed. While health outcomes are relatively strong by regional standards, quality of care is a significant concern. The sector suffers from inefficiencies and inequities,” said the World Bank.
“The health sector reforms are complex, and there is still a large unfinished agenda,” World Bank Country Manager for Albania Tahseen Sayed said.
The bank has granted loans to Albania since 1991 after it toppled the former communist regime and became its member.
Key health system performance indicators in Albania are mixed. While health outcomes are relatively strong by regional standards, quality of care is a significant concern. The sector suffers from inefficiencies and inequities. Out-of-pocket payments of patients accounts for more than half of total expenditures on health. With only half of the poor covered by social health insurance, increased health spending has pushed more households into poverty. Unofficial payments remain common, particularly in public hospitals.
Albania has shown strong commitment to undertaking reforms in several key areas, including improving health financing systems and hospital services, pharmaceutical reforms, and expanding social health insurance. The new project will support the health sector reform agenda with the aim to improve access and efficiency of healthcare services.
The project activities will support reforming the hospital sector, improving monitoring and management of service quality and efficiency through the establishment of a health management information system, and reforming the health financing system, including assessing options to expand insurance coverage within the available fiscal space.
Since Albania joined the World Bank in 1991, a total of 84 projects comprising over 2.1 billion dollars of IDA credits and grants and IBRD loans have been provided to the country.
