A major renovation and expansion project of the Infectious Diseases Clinic at Tirana’s Mother Teresa University Hospital Centre completed on Wednesday and the new 130-bed hospital, with the number of intensive care units tripled, opened its doors to deliver high quality care services to more than 10,000 patients annually.

The Infectious Diseases Hospital has been transformed into a state-of-the-art modern clinic with expanded premises and a national reference centre of excellence, meeting highest international standards in order for the medical staff to respond and demonstrate commitment and professionalism in patient care at any potential public health emergencies.

“Through the Albanian government-funded renovation and expansion project, worth EUR 5.6 million, and thanks to the commitment of each and every one of you, now we have a genuine national reference centre for infectious diseases in line with the highest international standards. This investment meets highest standards and will resist time,” the Minister of Health and Social Protection Ogerta Manastirliu said as she accompanied the Prime Minister Edi Rama during the visit to the transformed premises of the new hospital.

Prime Minister Rama addressed the inauguration ceremony:

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Hello everyone and thank you very much for our presence and patience! I would try to cut my speech short, though it is an exercise that turns out to be not easy at all.

First of all, I would like to express my respect and gratitude to the medical staff at the Infectious Disease Clinic because although we are now in a post-pandemic era, what this staff did during the pandemic should never be forgotten and we and everyone should avail of every occasion to express the deep respect and gratitude. And I believe this very investment is a concrete expression of the respect and the gratitude to make sure the medical staff here continue  deliver care services to patients by being provided optimum working conditions at brand new premises that meet highest international standards, the state-of-the-art equipment and the logistics and the needs spaces so that what turned out to be a huge success story during the fight against an invisible enemy doesn’t remain merely an episode of the doctors’ and nurses’ leadership and commitment, but it is passed on to future and younger generations as an inalienable spirit of the work of this staff.

Touring these new premises, I was pleased to meet the more experienced and less experienced young medical staff members and I am convinced that this investment will also serve in this aspect to build fresh bigger synergies and a stronger feeling and sense of a team that strutted their stuff and proved their worth at the country’s most tragic moment. The professor already stated earlier that the pandemic was the biggest challenge facing the health system since the foundation of the Albanian state, but the system should also demonstrate itself during the daily work by respecting and providing care to every patient.

I avail myself of this opportunity to also express gratitude to the World Bank representative for the same reason that the Health Minister already thanked him, because strangely enough, but also in a very welcome way, the World Bank responded quickly to our demands this time. I don’t know how they delivered, but they simply did and I think this is the support and the full meaning of the project’s tremendous significance, not only in terms of the infrastructure but also in the moral aspect relative to this amazing medical team that are the pride of the Albanian health system.

I would like to briefly comment on this new facility.

Another piece has been put in this entire mosaic. Some more other links still need to be transformed and I am convinced that, within this term in office, we will have a totally transformed hospital facility here at the Mother Teresa University Hospital Centre as a true embodiment of our ambition, as well as an embodiment of the compliance, the professionalism of all doctors and nurses delivering care to patients at this facility with the tools and the new premises available.

What I would like to add to the Minister’s remarks is that it is our ambition to deliver on a 100% pay hike for the medical workers within this term in office compared to the monthly wages doctors used to receive when we took power. With the next year’s state budget, the wage increase for the doctors, nurses and all medical workers will jump to 70%, with God’s help, should no other disaster strikes us so that it can force again to divert funds already earmarked for certain projects. I am confident we will be able to deliver on our 100% pay hike plan for each and every one of you and for everyone else not attending this event, but who serve in this facility.

I would like to assure everyone of our commitment to press ahead with more investment projects in other territories from Diber further down to south in Gjirokaster, from Lezha further down to other areas across the country so that we can ultimately complete the whole mosaic of the health infrastructure and completely transform it.

We are quite aware this is not enough. We now need to push forward with hospital autonomy. The first model of the hospital autonomy has been already set and it will clear the way to further expand autonomy, which will also allow for further performance-based increase in the monthly salaries for the doctors and nurses, so that whoever works harder and provides more care be rewarded by benefiting more than the ceiling wage. This is our ambition for the future.

I know you are now through a tough situation again. This is actually the case with everyone and for the whole country, because, against our will, we have been again hit by a negative phenomenon, which we have neither triggered nor can stop it. Everyone is experiencing the effects of this phenomenon either through the increased energy price, which we are actually handling and are providing everyone the opportunity, including you and your families, so that you and they see no electricity price increase in their monthly bills. Your electricity bills include just a percentage of the real electricity price and we have shared this burden, 20% on the households and 80% on the state budget respectively. We will continue to do so and we will keep the same shield in place to protect small businesses too, because if we were to increase the electricity price for the small businesses and all the shops where you buy your goods, the consumer prices would increase automatically, because of the transferred burden.

Therefore, we will bear the brunt of this blow and will do whatever it takes to mitigate its effects. We can’t eliminate it, as nobody can, but we will mitigate the effects of the war-driven inflation, whose rate is currently lower than in any other country in the region thanks to this very protection shield we have placed regarding the electricity price. The electricity bills in other countries in the region – and we visited North Macedonia most recently – have been doubled. The same goes for other countries in a wider region, where the electricity prices have more than doubled, automatically driving the inflation to much higher rates than in Albania.

It is an act solemn of handing over these roses to Professor Najada, of course to thank not just her, but each and every one of you.