Bardha Nergjoni, Shëndet+ newspaper, shendeti.com.al (Lexo në shqip)
You have to walk endless kilometers to reach the hospital. Endless stairs till the ward and then waiting for hours to have the medical treatment. This is the “odyssey” of dialysis patients in the Hospital of Elbasan. We are talking about 70 patients from Korça, Pogradeci, Belshi and other areas around Elbasan, that three times a week come to this hospital. Their misery is enormous while they suffer also due to lack of doctors, high medicine costs and risk their life if they can’t afford all these challenges.
Patients: We sacrifice a lot
Since 4 years, Mr. Mustafa Peçi from Belsh takes his dialysis treatment in Elbasan. His son, Luan came back to Albania to help and he transports his father three times a week from Belsh to Elbasan on the fourth patients’ shift. They are obliged to travel 30 km on bad roads in order for the father to take this vital service while they get only 1.000 ALL as a reimbursement by the state.
Three times a week, Mr. Mustafa Peci and other 69 patients climb 3 pairs of high stairs and descent another one to enter the dialysis unit.
His son Luan complains about the lack of transportation, the inappropriate shifts, lack of medical staff and the very small and limited space offered to the patients. “I travel a very long way three times a week from Belsh to come here for my father’s dialysis. Patients from Korça or Pogradeci also come here, and many times our schedule is postponed, so we have to wait till 9 PM or even longer. We come here in winter and summer and we sacrifice so much that I’m thinking to rent a house nearby so my father can make the dialysis”, Mr. Luan explains. He tells that he left Greece just to help his parents, while wondering how other people manage to have the treatment if they can’t travel. “A 20 years old girl from Belsh died during the dialysis treatment. She went to Tirana and once a week here in Elbasan just to take the dialysis. She didn’t have the money to pay the trip, imagine other things. Meanwhile, there are no doctors in the afternoon but only those on guard of the pathology service. Even cleaning staff is not sufficient, because they were shortened due to the reform”.
Mr. Kastriot Brahja is another family member of a dialysis patient. For 8 years he has been accompanying his father in the Elbasan hospital to take the treatment. He says the situation has not changed at all these years in the department while patients’ number has increased.
“The personnel service is good. There are good nurses here and we do not complain. But the department is very small, while the stairs have always been a problem. There are people who come here in stretchers and are obliged to climb all these stairs. I’m young and still can’t breathe climbing them; can you imagine those who are sick? In the ward the space is not sufficient. I think nurses are real heroes, but we don’t have doctors especially in the afternoon shifts”, says Mr. Kastriot.
No doctors in the afternoon at the hemodialysis unit
While climbing the stairs of Pathology Hospital and trying to go the hemodialysis unit, along the hallway there are many boxes giving the impression of a storehouse. But these boxes instead replace shelves and are used for patients’ clothes or dialysis equipments. 10 beds are inside the unit in a 100 meters square space where all patients stay.
The tiny space makes patients lie down near to each other while there is blood and toxins smell. This is the situation all dialysis patients face during their treatment. There is only one full time doctor in this unit, and two other doctors working part time. While in the afternoon there are no doctors and in case of any problem, patients might have the guard doctor of the pathology department to intervene and notify the specialist.
The number of patients suffering the kidneys failure, who are treated with hemodialysis at the regional hospital of Elbasan, is increasing every year, while space, beds and staff remain the same.
The principal: We work with 4 shifts and have just only a full time doctor
The chief of hemodialysis department, Dr. Everest Hoxha, says that the unit in Elbasan offers dialysis service for 70 patients with around 800 sessions per month. According to him, patients come from Korça, Pogradec, Peqin, Librazhd, Gramsh, Belsh and Cërrik. Dr. Hoxha says the staff works with 4 shifts and there are 3 doctors for the pavilion, but just one of them works full time.
Tahiraj: Presim rikonstruksionin
The Hospital Center Director, Ms. Desantila Tahiraj, informs that within this year the hemodialysis will undergo a concession while the third floor of old chirurgic hospital will be reconstructed in order to be prepared for this service.
The concessional will offer a bigger space with 36 beds and a two shift service. Actually the third floor of the building, where hemodialysis service will be settled, is under construction. One of the staff members within the unit says that, according to the contract, the private hospital will have the concession of the service only when the number of patients will reach 72. Actually there are 70 patients that take dialysis treatment in this department of Elbasan hospital.
They hope that the concession procedures will be brief and the service will pass to the private hospital because life is very hard for them in this ward with such a tiny space, with very tiring stairs, lack of staff, many shifts and lack of hygiene.
