A new system of state-of-the-art medical laboratories has become operational at the University Hospital Centre in Tirana for few months now and it is set to expand throughout the territory in a bid to build a national network of public medical laboratories in the country.
Prime Minister Edi Rama, accompanied by the Minister of Education and Social Protection Ogerta Manastirliu, today toured the new space where the most advanced laboratory technology has been installed at the University Hospital.
This gigantic and important public-private partnership project, which ushers in a new chapter in the health care modernization, will soon be implemented in other hospitals across the country, offering a broad range of medical diagnostic tests of high accuracy level.
“Implementation of the public-private partnership project in medical laboratories at University Hospital Centre is already underway for few months now and the project will expand to include 18 regional hospitals throughout the country. Implementation of the partnership project is currently being implemented at five Tirana hospitals, offering a wide range of medical diagnostic tests, boosting by over 50% the range of laboratory medical tests performed at our public hospitals, providing the opportunity for early detection of diseases and better patient follow-up. In addition to five university hospitals in Tirana, the new system is being installed also at regional hospitals in Fier and Berat and the project implementation is also set to begin at the regional hospitals in Elbasan, Lezhe and Durres within July, allowing public hospital centres to conduct all sorts of medical tests,” Health Minister Manastirliu said, adding that “the new system is expected to be installed at all hospitals across the country within October, including two municipal hospitals in Lushnje and Saranda, which are part of the program to ensure high quality medical tests are conducted there.”
The new state-of-the-art medical laboratory offers not only higher accuracy of the test and diagnostic results, but it also serves as an innovative and educating setting. “This is a technological novelty that few countries in Europe possess. It is a revolution in terms of shortening the processing time and reducing the error rate. The laboratory is built with the concept of not only diagnosis, but also innovation and education, so it combines all the elements together,” the laboratory director said.
The medical tests will be performed according to same standards at all hospitals through a computer-based testing system. “For the first time we set up a computer-based system for all medical tests and the system’s expansion no only to the Tirana University Hospital Centre but to all regional hospitals included in this partnership project, eases test certification process as the tests will be of the same standard at all hospitals. We are already certifying laboratories according to international standards, guaranteeing more safety,” Health Minister Manastirliu said.
