Albania is facing an ongoing issue with the emigration of local workers which is being particularly felt in the medical sector, said Health Minister Ogerta Manastirliu, noting that this issue has become a daily battle.
Some 1.4 million Albanians have left the country since the end of Communism in 1991, and some 700,000 in the last ten years. Out of these, some 3,000 medical doctors are believed to have left, with over half going to Germany.
Albania has the lowest number of doctors and nurses per capita in Europe, data from 2020 shows. In 2019, 18% of qualified medical staff worked abroad.
During a press conference on Tuesday, Manastirliu said the exodus of medical staff is a problem that requires a multifaceted solution including strengthening human resources, working conditions, and specialisation opportunities.
“Dealing with this phenomenon is a daily battle, there are no quick fixes or magic solutions, it is a daily chore in many ways,” the minister said.
She added that in 2022, some 355 doctors and 100 specialist doctors have been onboarded by the state health system, along with 900 nurses. In terms of what lies ahead for 2023, the minister said there will be programmes in place to encourage Albanian doctors to return home because “it is our interest to return as many doctors as possible and of course to keep the doctors we have here.”
Key complaints from medical staff in Albania, fuelling emigration include low salaries, lack of medicines and poor conditions in hospitals. Specialist areas are particularly under strain. For example, the number of psychiatrists per capita is the lowest in Europe with just one per 100,000 patients.
The World Health Organisation has also noted that Albania has one of the lowest rates of doctors-to-patients globally.
Both the ruling Socialist Party and the opposition Democratic Party have blamed each other for the situation claiming that each should have done more to improve the health service and conditions for medical workers.
But Albania is also suffering from a serious lack of innovative medicines and therapies, with just 3% of drugs approved by the European Union in the last three years available locally, leading to calls from pharmacists to improve the way drugs are brought to the market.
Between 2017 and 2020, out of 160 drugs approved in the EU for rare diseases and cancer, just five were approved in Albania and none were added to the state-subsidised disbursement list.
“The drug becomes usable when it is included in the reimbursement list. Albania has a medication reimbursement fund of only $100 million per month, while the countries of the region and Europe, up to 10 times higher,” the Association of Pharmacists told Monitor.
(Alice Taylor | Exit.al)
Source: euractiv.com
