TIRANA, July  11 /ATA/ Minister of Education and Sports, Evis Kushi, presented on Tuesday to the Commission for Labor, Social Affairs and Health the draft law for the differential treatment of students who attend the integrated study program of the second cycle in the general medicine program.

In her remarks before the commission, Kushi said that “this policy is also applied in other countries. It was not invented by us. We have seen similar policies in many countries, even in EU countries. Of course, every type of policy is adapted to the specifics, but at the core is exactly the motivation and mechanisms to retain young doctors in their home country.”

Minister Kushi said that “this bill is presented for two reasons. First and foremost, it is intended to set up new mechanisms, to motivate doctors to continue working and contribute in Albania, and secondly, to meet the needs for doctors in our health institutions and to ensure an even distribution of medical professionals throughout the country.”

“According to OECD data, it is estimated that by 2022 the total number of doctors graduated in Albania, who live and work in OECD countries, is over 1,200 doctors. The growing trend is for doctors to work in Germany, USA, Canada, Italy and Great Britain. So the rate of emigration is estimated to be 19.8%, so about 20%. It means that out of 10 young doctors, two of them leave for foreign countries,” Kushi said.

Minister Kushi said that “currently speaking there are 5400 doctors working in the health system, which can be translated into 1.93 doctors for every 1000 inhabitants, falling behind the level we intend to reach, and therefore we have a long way to go to approach the standards of the countries in the region, 2.6 doctors per 1000 inhabitants.  Our ambition is to approach the OECD countries, where this indicator is 3.6 doctors for every 1000 inhabitants”.

Kushi went on saying that to respond to the needs of the system on the one hand and to prevent the drain of doctors to foreign countries, quotas for the General Medicine program has started to gradually increase over the years.

“A few years ago, the quotas for the first year at the University of Medicine of Tirana were 250, while with the gradual increase, we aim for these quotas to reach the value of 500 in 2024,” said Kushi.

Elaborating on this draft law, Kushi said that “all those candidates, those high school graduates entitled to register at the Faculty of Medicine, before registration will sign an agreement with the MoHSP, MAS and TMU, to accept to work 5 years upon graduation in Albanian health institutions and to withdraw the diploma after fulfilling this obligation.”

Meanwhile, she said, for the students who are currently in the system, which means from the second year to the sixth year, two alternatives are considered.

/sm/