GREEK HELSINKI MONITOR

RADIO FREE EUROPE/RADIO LIBERTY, PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC

GREEK MEDICAL TREATMENT FOR MORE ALBANIANS.

 

Vol. 3, No. 69, 

15 September 2000

. Albanian Health
Minister Leonard Solis told the "Albanian Daily News" of 15
September that Greece has increased its quota for patients
from Albania from 300 to 500. He made the remarks after a
meeting in Tirana with his Greek counterpart, Alekos
Papadopoulos.
 The Greek and Albanian health authorities will give
priority to patients with kidney problems, who depend on
dialysis for their survival, and to other emergency cases.
The agreement will last until 2003. In the meantime, Greece
offered to increase its assistance to refurbish the
hospital in Gjirokastra and to equip it with dialysis
machines.
 The only current dialysis treatment center in Albania
is at the main hospital in Tirana. This forces patients to
make regular journeys across the country under bad road
conditions and in busses that are often crowded. The Health
Ministry is currently building two more dialysis centers in
Elbasan and Shkodra, however.
 Recently, Greece has sent back Albanian patients from
the hospital in Ioannina to Tirana, leading to an
overcrowding of the hospital there. Most Albanians cannot
afford dialysis treatment themselves. (Fabian Schmidt)