Speech by Prime Minister at graduation ceremony for 1600 University of Medicine and Health Sciences students:
I am really excited to come and attend this graduation ceremony and I demanded that I deliver my speech at the very beginning of the ceremony, because I have to leave and I cannot attend the event till end, yet I didn’t want to miss it, because I think not only those graduating today, but their parents too deserve a wholeheartedly greeting. Heartfelt wishes for their every desired success for which they have studied and worked hard. Of course, a special greeting goes also to all the guests here, doctors, nurses, medical professionals, who deserve respect in a place and at a time, when speaking disrespectfully about those in this room and many others not present here and who save thousands and thousands of lives every year has become somehow a norm.
But, since you applauded, I would like you dedicate a special applause to every mother, father, grandmother and grandfather of the boys and girls wearing today the long-awaited academic dress of “escaping the professors’ hands grab” and beginning a career, a lot different from all other kinds of careers, because it is a career in direct service to the people’s lives.
I am very pleased to tell the boys and girls who have gathered to throw their academic caps today and embark on the path of profession and career that they enjoy today much better conditions than their predecessors enjoyed. Starting with the first condition as the experience of the last year graduates has shown that to start work and lead a career in your profession you will now need nothing but your skills. The job position in our public health system is guaranteed according to a merit-based system thanks to the Doctors for Albania Portal. The same goes for the nurses and teachers’ employment. This is the reason why if you were to visit the health care centres under reconstruction today you would find there the best-performing students and graduates from this university who have already put on the doctor’s white coat thanks to their merit and they should owe this favour nobody but their merit and their parents.
Likewise, since coincidentally a number of news stories and comments were made today about the doctors and nurses who have left Albania, I would like to highlight the fact that the newly-graduated physicians and practitioners who wish to exert their profession in Albania, just like it is already the case of many of your colleagues who have agreed, or want to contribute by working in hospitals away from their place of residence, will benefit a monthly bonus payment which is equivalent to the sum of money they would be making if they were to work as doctors in Germany after having deducted all taxes doctors pay there. This is a fact that is being testified and will be testified by all those currently serving hospitals in the country’s remote districts.
We are also preparing a set of other supporting measures to increase protection and show respect for the doctor’s figure in Albania in terms of their financial and housing treatment.
Question: Do you know that only wealthy students manage to graduate today? The answer to it is: This utterly untrue. This is untrue due to the fact that today, different from the past, students have been treated much better and I believe you all know this, both students and their parents. Not only that, but if the best performing students are entitled to a special treatment, the same treatment is provided to students coming from the low-income families.
However, one thing is for sure. Many of the students coming from poor families are excellent students and they are the most meaningful testimony to the true fact that economic woes are not an excuse. Quite the contrary, to many the economic woes are an incentive and their best performing marks are a tool for the newly-graduates not only to succeed for themselves, but also lift their families out of poverty. Of course, we have opted for this system where not everyone can be treated equally. Those who excel and those who don’t cannot be equally treated. This is a fact whether we like it or not.
What I would have wished for the graduates of today is that they enjoyed further improved conditions of the University of Medicine. You have witnessed a huge change in terms of access to studies and accessory support. The Pact for the University with the University of Medicines includes a program that is being directly monitored by the Minister of Health. Significant steps have been made and work will go on to build new lecture halls for the medicine students, seven new labs, library, the computer centre, study rooms and so on and so forth.
Of course, there is no end of good and bad things are much likely to fade and be forgotten quickly. But if for a second we were to turn our heads back and look at where we started from, then it would suffice to understand that much better conditions have been created today. But if we were to look at where we are eyeing to go to, the today’s accomplishments are insufficient. Students who will still be in school, will still be in laboratories, will still be in professional practice, will have better conditions than those who are leaving school today.
The newly-built Surgical Hospital would suffice for everyone in this profession – I believe you all have seen it – to figure out our ambition to where we want to take health care service in Albania and what service conditions we are seeking to provide.
It is quite enough to compare the medical instruments used by your professors in the past and the medical equipment available to the young doctors today to figure out our ambition of how we want the health system to be.
It suffices to take a look at the new health care facilities that are being built and rebuilt to draw a comparison with the health centres, where doctors, who will be your colleagues starting tomorrow, have sacrificed over the past 30 years in order for you to understand how we want the health system to be.
Today it is no longer the time when we pledge “we will do this and that,” but it is the time when we say look things are being done and patiently understand that this is the way we will keep doing everything that needs to be done. Don’t forget what you already saw just two days ago to figure out that Albania is no longer what it used to be, a country heading to an unknown direction. Albania has now its direction, it faces a lot of difficulties to deal with, but more importantly Albania has the great will and passion to become just like these new graduates and others who will graduate in the years to come deserve it to be.
Albania faces no shortage of doctors. The shortage of doctors was an inherited disaster that ensued because of the unexplainable decision – we can’t still provide and explanation – to block for four years the doctors’ specialization program that created a huge gap between the need and the opportunities to meet this need. More than 400 young doctors, including many doctors returning from abroad, and as many as 2200 nurses joined the country’s health care system between 2018 and 2019 alone.
Listening to the news stories, many may say: “There are no doctors. There are no nurses. They all left the country.” No, this is not true!
As of today, as many as 1500 nurses are on the waiting list and not behind the party politics doors, not looking for friends or intermediate people to help them find a job, but they are on the waiting list of the Nurses for Albania Portal, which is a completely transparent mirror that allows nobody to tell lies and allows nobody else to rank above you if your performing results are higher. Which means, we do not face such a problem. Of course, not here, but in many European countries, starting with Croatia, a European Union member state, Italy, one of the world’s biggest economic powers, and then Spain and Portugal and countries in the new Europe, or the former communist countries, the emigration of doctors to Great Britain, Germany or other Northern Europe countries is a trend. It is imperative important that we do everything we can to make sure that Albanian citizens have access to health care service and doctors, nurses and medical professionals are here to provide adequate service to citizens.
These are certainly not things that can be done in the blink of an eye, but they are things that take their time to be done. And we have succeeded in doing things during this time. Today, 113 foreign doctors work in the health system of the Republic of Albania.
It is imperative that we do whatever it takes to preserve and strengthen the doctor’s image and dignity after having dealt a severe blow over the years, with doctors often becoming target of violence. To this end, we have amended the Criminal Code to stiffen penalties for any individual who issues threats or resorts to aggressive actions against doctors and health personnel. The fact that number of these barbarous acts has significantly declined speaks for itself for the efficiency of these measures.
Medicine is an art, it is not a profession and it is not a business either. It is a much more difficult art than painting and I respectfully and admirably wish you all wholeheartedly to have strong will, passion, as much creativity and as much pleasure as a result of your art!
Thank you very much!
