The first National Medical Congress took place on Monday, bringing together policymakers, health experts, health care professionals, service users and other stakeholders in a joint forum to share the needs and engage in a broad dialogue on the main challenges facing the country’s health system.
This congress is a medium for stakeholders to reflect on international best practices, learn and adapt them in order to provide better care, increase quality of health services and be updated with the latest innovations in the health sector.
Prime Minister Rama addressed the first Medical Congress.
* * *
Hello everyone!
First of all allow me to wholeheartedly thank you each and every one of you and all health professionals for the effort, commitment and accomplishments in an area, where you have to struggle to save lives and the health of our people and is the most important of all things that make up this area of human capital.
I would like to focus on human capital and resources only. I am fully confident we can openly state today that the human resources in the country’s health care system are much more stable, much better treated and definitely more ensured for the present and the future and indeed amid an ongoing frenetic international race that has ushered in a very hectic phase to build up human resources in the health systems of all countries, including the more developed countries, in order for us to be really competitive and live up not only to the domestic challenges, but also up to this overall international challenge, because all countries, the most developed ones included, have entered a stage when the need to strengthen and attract more health personnel, the need to deliver in health care is becoming increasingly more acute also because of the aging populations in the wealthiest countries in particular, but also because of the growing demand for health and social care.
On the other hand, we know very well where we started from, but being also pretty aware of where we are going to go, we have no other choice but to keep pushing forward; I am referring to decision-makers and policy-makers in order to empower and guarantee these human resources.
This human capital needs education, it needs education, it needs merit-based employment and it needs decent working conditions and wages.
If we consider education, I think we can confidently state that significant progress has been made. Today’s medical education system for the healthcare professionals has been awarded the quality certificate given the that those educated in our country’s medicine university are welcomed with open arms even in the most developed countries, despite the fact that they have to go through some converting processes, but it is very clear that our doctors and nurses working in these countries have earned a positive reputation.
This honours doctors and nurses, but it is actually an additional problem for us.
However, there are reasons for us to feel proud when it comes to education; we take pride in the performance of the University of Medicine, for the excellent work of the university lecturers and professors and our common work, from the exams to the specialisation training and the medical degree.
The medicine students today pay 1/16 of the real cost and the government covers their costs by taking into consideration a series of factors that I am not going to list now, but the state does so and the Albanian taxpayers do not pay for the students to leave the country and choose Germany instead on the very day they complete university and receive the medical degree. The Albanian state is not funding education of the medicine students for the sake of the German health system and this is a problem that many countries have addressed and it is also time for us to ultimately tackle it.
On the other hand, it is the education aspect. It inadequate for one to complete an education degree program and fulfil all the obligations in the theoretical aspect so that he or she can be considered a physician, but the practical and specialisation training are needed, and I mean not only the daily professional practice, but also the practice that hardens the humans, nurtures a missionary, because your profession is unlike any other profession; a doctor is not an engineer, is not a mechanic or an agronomist and therefore there is room for reflection on this aspect before one is awarded the diploma.
After the absurd decision to shut down the specialisation training program for four years – a decision I still can’t figure out where it came from – we have already for some time now launched the specialisation training in medicine. The same goes for the physician’s employment. More than 335 general practitioners and specialist physicians, as well as 950 nurses and medical technicians have been employed in the public hospitals across the country, meeting the system’s needs, but also by going through a totally transparent and merit-based recruitment process that has made sure that more than 5500 doctors and health professionals join their country’s health system since 2018 without taking up the job position of someone else and this is really important. Improving their working conditions is also a very important aspect.
One of the reasons why a professional takes up or quits a job that is connected with the logistics, the equipment and very expensive devices is definitely linked with the conditions in their workplace. But the working conditions for doctors and nurses, from the Mother Teresa University Hospital Centre to hundreds of other hospitals and health care centres all over Albania are incomparably better than a few years ago and meet the same standards of the developed European countries.
Definitely, all of these are eventually linked to the remuneration, the monthly wage. This is because as I deliver these remarks, everyone has the right to say: Yes, this is right, but the German system is much more developed and we lag far behind in terms of wages. We have increased wages by 63% since 2013, but we are fully aware that this is insufficient and as the race becomes increasingly more hectic, we are forced to hurry up, because, as you already know – and you know better than anyone else – life is what happens to us while we are busy making other plans. The hospital autonomy is a new mechanism that is currently being tested at the Memorial Hospital and which will eventually create the opportunity for higher, but not equal wages in our health system, which means that the hospital autonomy will allow for significant pay rise for those who work harder, those who perform more surgeries, those who perform more check-ups and so on and so forth. In the meantime, we need to determine a decent ceiling wage.
And I am telling you today that starting as of April, and not next April, but precisely on April 30, specialist physicians will receive an additional monthly payment of 50,000 lek in addition to their monthly wages. I repeat, it is about an additional monthly payment of $500 or $6000 a year. This payment will be made available starting as of April 30. In the meantime, we will deliver on our promise for a 7% hike for the wages of general practitioners and nurses. I hope that specialist physicians won’t ask for another 7% increase to add up to the monthly bonus of 50,000 lek. I can also tell general practitioners and nurses that we are preparing a proportional pay rise for them and a similar pay hike will be made in 2024. And finally, if we climb to the top of the region’s wages for doctors in April, we will definitely do the same with other salaries within this term in office.
Thank you very much!
