Vitia: We asked Albania several times for free hemodialysis for Kosovo citizens, but there was no response

Vitia: We asked Albania several times for free hemodialysis for Kosovo citizens, but there was no response

The acting Minister of Health, Arben Vitia, has stated that Kosovo has requested several times from Albania to provide free hemodialysis services to Kosovo citizens, just as Kosovo does with Albanian citizens.

According to him, these requests have been made through the Albanian ambassadors in Kosovo, as well as in direct communication with the Minister of Health in Albania. However, there is still no official information on the implementation of this request.

“This is an agreement that has been in place since 2018, we have been making further arrangements, citizens from the northern part of Albania receive hemodialysis services at the hospital in Gjakova but also in Prizren. We have requested three or four times through the ambassadors of the Republic of Albania in the Republic of Kosovo that this service be offered to our citizens for free, as well as to citizens from Kosovo when they go on vacation. We have not yet received a response in this regard. In a telephone conversation I had with the Minister of Health in Albania, they promised me that they will be agile and will do their utmost to implement this agreement, but I do not have official information yet when it will be done,” said Vitia.

Vitia made this statement after participating in the inauguration of the hemodialysis service at the Podujeva hospital.

He was also asked by reporters about the shortage of some medicines due to a lack of bidders.

“The procurement law must be implemented,” said Vitia, emphasizing that legal processes are mandatory, even when they impede rapid supply.

The Minister added that there are currently some shortages in SHSKUK medicines and this situation may also be related to the implementation of lThe price ceiling for medicines has affected the willingness of operators to bid.

“There are some procedural processes when we are on procurement laws. The procurement law must be implemented. At the moment when the tender procedure is opened once, there are no bidders. It is opened twice, there are no bidders. Then, with a request through the Kosovo Agency for Medical Products and Equipment and then the approvals of the Ministry of Health, ways are found to get these missing medicines. Of course, we have to go through these procedures because we cannot go directly this way. Therefore, there are some shortages of these medicines in the SHSKUK… This may have happened with the start of the implementation of the law on medicine prices, the ceiling price of medicines because some bidders, without saying about the specific case because I do not know. However, I know that some bidders have started not to bid because earlier when they bid, the prices were in their hands rather than bidding, we have often seen that some who only had some special products have bid beyond any price limit”, Vitia emphasized.