TIRANA, June 26/ATA/ Minister of Health and Social Protection Albana Koçiu spoke today about the recent event at the Oncology Hospital and said that, “We have started an administrative investigation in addition to the investigation that the Prosecutor’s Office has started. And I will encourage efforts to go to the end of the investigation process and to punish in an exemplary manner all those who have carried out acts which violate the figure of the doctor and the nurse”.
During a briefing after the government meeting where there was approved the salary increase for doctors and nurses, Koçiu said that, “Corruption is the red dividing line between the interest of every citizen and anyone who thinks of committing such shameful actions, which is not part of the figure of the doctor and nurse”.
“The procedure and the administrative investigation that we have started together with the internal audit and anti-corruption structures will be an investigation, which will certainly deal with many aspects, issues of organization and work in this service. It is unacceptable, intolerable that the doctor who should serve people with dedication every day can treat human life as a commodity in the wholesale market and precisely for this fact we will also want to add another dimension to the figure of the doctor and nurse and their profession”, underlined Koçiu.
Minister Koçiu said that, “This is exactly what we are working on and we will very soon initiate the necessary legal changes which we will propose to the Assembly of Albania. It is about making amendments to the law on the physician’s order, to impose strong sanctions and to punish anyone who treats human life as a wholesale commodity in the free market”.
“We will punish anyone who, in addition to other moral actions, does not perform his duties in a professional manner, with integrity and morals, which should be the essence of the work of every professional, especially in the health sector,” said Koçiu.
Koçiu also emphasized that, “The administrative investigation that we have started will also make possible a re-dimension of the entire Oncology service”.
According to the investigation carried out, it is suspected that doctors in collaboration with each other, the specialists and the hospital administrator referred patients diagnosed with tumor diseases to private clinics, for profit purposes, not offering the services at the Oncology hospital in the University Hospital Center. /k.s/p.s./
