Author: Arlis Alikaj
The Albanian government has often received low marks and has been criticized by international health organizations in various reports for the lack of infrastructure and investment in the health sector. The current government considers health to be one of the biggest and most difficult challenges , highlighting that the Health Renaissance Program has the largest investment figure and a significant increase in salaries for medical personnel. Prrenjas Hospital has been the subject of promises not only from the current government, but also from previous executives. Even before, it has been reported that this hospital is using equipment that has reached “retirement”, but the situation has not changed at all.
The over 60-year-old equipment of Prrenjas hospital
The X-ray machine has been in use since 1953, so it is 68 years old. The scanner is also outdated. Doctors and physicists from the Radiation Protection Office claimed anonymously (this is also due to the fear of being removed from the ranks of the white shirts recently) that the old equipment causes harmful and irreversible radiation to the health not only of patients, but also of the doctors who work with them. Referring to the protocols that determine the periodic certification of X-ray machines, some of the certified physicists denied having done/or being aware of a licensing of the Prrenjas hospital's X-ray machine.
The radiography sector is just the tip of the iceberg. The Director of Prrenjas Hospital, Sami Agolli, refused to be interviewed by the Albanian Center for Quality Journalism, but unofficially he acknowledged the age of the equipment in the hospital. He said that scopy has not been done in this hospital for so long and that the radiologist is missing, this is because there cannot be a radiologist for such a small hospital. The Albanian Center for Quality Journalism sent two requests for information to the Prrenjas Hospital and two to the Ministry of Health, regarding the age of the equipment and investments in the Prrenjas Hospital, but there was no response. The requests were sent on December 21, 2020 to the Prrenjas Hospital and December 17, 2020 to the Ministry of Health, as well as a reminder for exceeding the response deadline of January 8, 2021.
What the Ministry of Health promised and a missing answer...
The Minister of Health, Ogerta Manastriliu, promised in 2018 that the reconstruction of the Prrenjas Polyclinic, which serves 40 thousand residents of this area, would begin within the year. The statement was made during a visit to the Elbasan region, where the Minister saw up close the infrastructure and conditions of this polyclinic.
"For us as Ministers and for the Albanian Government, it is a priority to intervene in the infrastructure of healthcare centers to guarantee quality service as close as possible to the community. We believe that within the year the complete reconstruction of this polyclinic will begin in cooperation with our international partners," said the minister nearly three years ago.
We sent an official request to the Ministry of Health for information on when the last investment was made in equipment such as X-ray machine, x-ray or other imaging equipment in the Prrenjas hospital, as well as the value of this investment. , but we have not yet received an official response to this despite our efforts of two requests for information in December 2020 and January 2021.
Citizens are prey to confusion and impasse...
According to Civil Registry data , the Municipality of Prrenjas has 33,031 inhabitants, where together with the administrative units formed by the new territorial division along with the villages of Prrenjas, this number is even greater, and the need is for a hospital that provides Services in good conditions and responds to the needs of a large community.
The Albanian Center for Quality Journalism was near Prrenjas hospital. Groups of patients who every Saturday, when it was the day of the scoping, left for Librazhd, to do the scoping because Prrenjas lacks both the scoping equipment and the pulmonologist (specialist).
"Go in and see for yourself, the walls are damp, if you go in with a cold you'll get pneumonia. It's not a hospital, but a pigsty. No light or heating," an elderly lady says in outrage, as she waits to receive a recommendation to go to Librazhd and have a more specialized checkup.
Qaniu, a resident of Prrenjas told us that he has never finished work for his asthmatic daughter at the Prrenjas hospital. He raised the concern that in addition to the depreciated equipment, specialist doctors such as pneumologist, radiologist or allergist have been missing for three years. He is forced to take his daughter every month for a periodic visit to the hospital in Librazhd, and when it gets bad to Elbasan or Tirana, increasing the costs of expenses for her.
Rusty, Chinese and outdated equipment, partially in working order. This situation is especially severe for those who often knock on the doors of this hospital. Mother Tixha, who was waiting for a recommendation to go to the Librazhd hospital, suffering from asthma, complained about the Prrenjas hospital: "A couple of times I had to do X-rays with difficulty and the acute illness I have was aggravated by the rays of these outdated devices. They are from the Chinese era. I don't have money to go to Librazhd for a walk ," she says. "I'm very frustrated ," says IM, a resident we meet on the Prrenjas - Librazhd vans, "Where do our taxes go?! The most minimal thing a state offers is healthcare. There is a lot of mismanagement and these devices were never purchased. During the winter, my family of 6 gets sick 2-3 times, we get stuck going from Rrajca to Librazhd. It's awful when it snows and the roads are blocked. We recover with tea at home and we don't know if our cold has gone away ."
The condition of the hospital has been denounced before by the white shirts who work in this institution.
"Investments have only been made for the terrace. Heating is done with electric heaters. The problematic part is the hospital's emergency room, there are only two rooms. We are on a national road, a difficult axis, there are a lot of accidents. We have a capacity of 7-8 thousand patients. They have promised us that the situation will change and we are waiting", Sami Agolli, the head of service at Prrenjas Hospital , previously stated for the show Fiks Fare, and the situation has not changed today.
In the framework of this article, we were interested in making a graph in this hospital and the doctor adapted for this, Dr. Bashkim Vasku, who performs echocardiography near this hospital, did not recommend the ultrasound in the hospital, saying that the equipment is not very good and the results are not as clear as he would like. He recommends digital imaging in Elbasan as the hospital imaging is not of high quality.
The Albanian Center for Quality Journalism approached the Prrenjas Municipality to ask more about the investments for this hospital and the funds, but the Municipality referred us to the Prrenjas hospital, “The Prrenjas City Hospital is not under the jurisdiction of the Prrenjas Municipality and we do not have this information, for this reason and in accordance with Article 10, point 2/d and Article 12, points 2 and 3 of Law No. 119/2014, the Coordinator for the Right to Information exercises the following powers: d) sends the request for information to another public authority”. In this case, the Prrenjas Municipality resented our request for information to the Prrenjas Hospital, but again we did not receive a response.
The accident victim is taken to the hospital, but the Prrenjasi hospital has no lights...
On January 24, 2020, Ardian Vreto, 45 years old, had an accident in Pishkash. Today, after one year, this accident is still under investigation by the competent authorities. The brother of the deceased, Bujar Vreto, says that when the Prrenjasi hospital ambulance went to the scene, there was no doctor. However, the 45-year-old was rushed to the hospital, but was turned away as soon as he reached the door, because the hospital had no lights.
"This is a matter that is being examined by the Elbasan and Korça prosecutor's offices. The doctor was not in the ambulance and the ambulance was not equipped with what is required by the emergency, not only by law. There was no oxygen, serum, an orthopedic bed with immobile supports when you are injured so that you do not move because the injuries are like knives and a small movement is fatal to life. On the day of the accident, the Prrenjas hospital was without electricity. Documents from the electricity institutions can be opened. They returned him without taking him to the hospital because there was no electricity. He left for Librazhd where the situation was the same and then they sent him to Elbasan where he lost his life , " explains Vreto.
Librazhdit Hospital, overflowing with patients from Prrenjasi...
The doctors of the prenumology ward in Librazhd say that they feel the fatigue and the load especially from the patients who come from Prrenjasi. Representatives from the Librazhdit hospital say that there is a high flow due to the lack of graphics and radioscopy in the Prrenjas hospital.
Miranda Rira, former mayor of Prrenjas and lecturer at the University of Elbasan, told the Albanian Center for Quality Journalism that the situation at the Prrenjas hospital is a catastrophe. "The Prrenjas Hospital is a mess. The medical equipment dates back to Enver's time, when the hospital was built. Remember a few years ago, when I was mayor, there was an accident with a bus with 52 students who were from Fier to Qafë Thanë and it was a bad winter. There were several injured. I felt very sorry because we had nowhere to inject them with even a simple serum. The Prrenjas Hospital serves not only the city of Prrenjas, which has 7 thousand inhabitants, not only for the entire large municipality, but also for the Mokra part of Pogradec since Prrenjas is like a bridge. It is half an hour from Librazhd, 1 hour from Elbasan and dozens of lives would have been saved from accidents if the hospital had been better. Many elderly people in Prrenjas still receive poor quality and half-hearted medical Services today. With my contacts, I had an opportunity from the Kuwaiti embassy to intervene with a certain amount of money, around 500 million lek reconstruction. Amid the malice that existed at the time between the local government and the Ministry of Health, with the excuse that I had no right or authority to act since the hospital depended on the Ministry of Health ," says Rira.
The Albanian Center for Quality Journalism directed you to the institution of the High Control of Justice for an Audit Report carried out for Prrenjas Hospital for the years 2019-2020. According to an official response received from this institution, it turned out that the State High Control did not carry out audits for the subject Prrenjasi Hospital in those years.
Despite media coverage of various problems, the situation for this hospital continues to be the same, leaving residents without a truly functional and comprehensive hospital. According to a non-technical summary of the KTA, the National Environmental Agency for the Prrenjas Hospital, on page 3 it is stated that "This hospital does not fully cover all the Services specified in the aforementioned law, which are covered by the Librazhd Hospital, since this is how the organization of the hospital service for this region was conceived and implemented." The report also speaks of reservations regarding the technology used and suggestions for environmental pollution and the method of treating hospital waste. pp. (5,6,7).
