Vlora regional hospital has recently added a number of previously unavailable health care services now provided for citizens for free. This all now happens thanks to the continued infrastructure investments and solutions to meet health care needs and address needs for specialist doctors. Prime Minister Edi Rama today visited the regional hospital in the southern coastal city of Vlora, where, together with the Minister of Health and Social Protection Ogerta Manastirliu, inspected the new hospital wards equipped with modern infrastructure. “Investments in Vlora hospital go on. After completion of work to reconstruct the polyclinics, which now operates in line with modern standards, new investments are underway in the regional hospital, aimed at improving delivery of the health care services,” Health Minister Manastirliu said.
One of the newest health services is chemotherapy, which has provided cancer patients access to this specialist service without having to travel long distances as it was the case previously, when they had to travel to Tirana in order to undergo chemotherapy treatment. With the newly reorganized specialist services, patients now receive a wider range of treatment with chemo drugs. “The chemotherapy service has been expanded and reorganized and now patients are treated for seven nosologies from only two nosologies of tumour diseases that were treated previously. The new chemotherapy ward is a state-of-the-art ward. It is important that the increase in health funding has also increased the volume of chemo drugs,” Manastirliu said.
For the first time, regional hospital offers the package of placing eye lens for free, a service that was not only previously provided at this hospital and patients had to pay an unaffordable amount of $700. Today, the surgery is performed by professional hospital doctors for free in the new ophthalmology ward. “The novelty of this year – Minister Manastirliu said – is that we will also offer the free lens package that we made available at the Tirana University Hospital in January last year and later in Elbasan, Vlora, Durres and Fier.”
On their part, ophthalmologists say they are satisfied with the optimal conditions under which the surgeries are now performed. “Until recently, patients hat to travel to Tirana because this service was not offered here. Patients had also to buy the lenses himself,” one of the doctors said.
Several newly graduated doctors from various regions of the country are practicing their profession at the Vlora hospital after completing the specialization program.
Prime Minister Rama also inspected the modern chambers for the sterilization of the medical equipment, the outcome of the public-private partnership. “The only mistake we have made is that we didn’t build a small museum in every hospital centre to show how the surgical instruments and medical equipment used previously, because citizens are fed up with the media and political propaganda, branding public-private partnership as a corruption scheme. But everyone can see for themselves the results of this partnership. All this equipment is an investment by the private operator and not by the state, because the state cannot afford doing it. Otherwise it would have been done also by those who are attacking us and failed to do so over the past 30 years. The state benefits a service that is delivered to the citizens for free,” Rama said.
During the visit, the Minister of Health and Social Protection also informed the public about the actions aimed at preventing the spread of the deadly new coronavirus. “With regards to the measures in place to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, also as part of what the World Health Organization has termed an international public health emergency, or a global emergency, we are working at ports, airports and border crossing points, not only to provide relevant information, but also by deploying additional teams of epidemiologists to all border crossing points,” she said.
