Albania’s Healthcare Budget Lowest in the Region

Tirana | 21 October 2009 |
Albania’s healthcare system, often marred by corruption and graft allegations has the lowest budget in the region spending €238 million, just 2.74 per cent of gross domestic product, GDP, in the current fiscal year.

Speaking during a conference to present a USAID project related to the healthcare system, the US Ambassador in Tirana, John L. Withers, called on the government to increase funding and intensify reforms in order to improve the quality of provision.

“Albania’s healthcare system has the lowest budget in the region and its reform is as important as other reforms underway in the country,” said Withers.

“The … healthcare system in Albania is as important as every other system,” he added, underlining that a “weak link often destroys the whole chain.”
Other weaknesses were underlined by Albania’s Minister of Health, Petrit Vasili, chief among them the patient referral system.

“Sometimes, often subjectively, we seek large hospital buildings to solve small clinical problems, bypassing the primary healthcare system,” said Vasili. “I insist and will continue to insist that the power of the system remain in the equilibrium of care,” he added. Source: Balkaninsight

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