The Ministry has opened applications for 70 subsidized loans, with applications running from Aug. 27 to Sept. 25, 2026.

“This is another concrete form of support for healthcare professionals who want to buy their own home,” the ministry said in a statement.

Applications will be submitted through the e-Albania government portal. Applicants must be employed in the public administration and meet the requirements set out in Albania’s social housing law.

Applicants must not own a home or have a property undergoing legalization, unless their existing home falls below the minimum housing standards.

They must also not own movable or immovable assets worth more than half the value of the home to be purchased through the subsidized loan and must not have benefited from other social housing programmes, the ministry said.

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The inclusion of young nurses and doctors provides them with hands-on experience and direct contact with patients’ needs.

At the Trauma Hospital in the capital, five newly qualified nurses have joined the existing medical team.

Prime Minister Edi Rama said in a post on social media on Friday that the new generation of nurses joining the State University Hospital of Trauma brings “positive energy” to the institution.

Under a government scheme, the Ministry of Health and Social Protection provides medical students with 80% of a specialist doctor’s salary during their four years of training, rising to 100% for those specialising in priority fields such as family medicine and emergency medicine.

Since the reopening of long-term medical specialties programmes in 2015, authorities have implemented what they describe as a sustainable model for distributing doctors nationwide, strengthening healthcare services not only in major centres but also in regional and municipal hospitals.

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Under the next year’s state budget, government has earmarked 98.72 billion lek or around EUR 950 million, the highest ever allocated for the country’s health and social protection sector in history of Albania.

The 2024 budget supports radical transformation of the Albanian health system by strengthening doctors, nurses, health workers, increasing universal coverage and further modernizing hospitals and health centres throughout the country.

The new state budget focuses on the doctors’ and nurses’ central role in the health strategy by supporting further increase in wages, improvement of the working conditions and expanding the hospital autonomy.

The state budget will continue supporting capital investments by launching new projects on modernization of health infrastructure all over the country.

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The Minister of Health and Social Protection Ogerta Manastirliu said in a post on the social media on Monday that 816 nurses  have been hired this year under a merit-based system at various hospitals and health care centres to deliver best care service to patients and communities across Albania.

“More than 2500 nurses and medical technical sciences professionals have applied under the latest call for applications via Nurses for Albania portal,” Health Minister said.

The online “Nurses for Albania” platform, launched by the Ministry of Health and Social Protection, offers real employment opportunities for all nurses upon their higher education graduation or after their qualification in this field to contribute to the community’s health.

This platform guarantees a recruitment process guided by the principles of transparency, merit, professionalism and equality in order to provide a quality nursing service at all three levels of health care.

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“During 2022, through the “Nurses for Albania” portal, there have recruited over 950 nurses and medical science technicians who have brought new spirit and new care to our public health care structures. Tomorrow, there will be released on the portal page the waiting list of nurses and medical science technicians. There are about 2,000 medical science technicians, nurses, physiotherapists, laboratory technicians, who have applied to the “Nurses for Albania” portal”, said Manastirliu.

Speaking about the financial treatment of doctors and nurses, Manastirliu said that, “We are supporting doctors and nurses every year through increasing their salaries. Even for the year 2023, we have planned to increase the salaries for our health personnel by 7%, starting from July”.

The minister spoke even about the new human resources plan for health personnel.

“The villages and remote areas having access to medical service is also important for us, so with the new reorganization we have done in the primary care structures, we have decided what kind of services these medical centers offer. Through the new human resources plan we are drafting, we shall have the opportunity to include instruments and mechanisms, but also programs to support all those nurses or doctors to work in remote areas”, said Manastirliu./p.s./

Prime Minister Edi Rama posted Thursday images of several nurses employed throughout Albania as part of a large team of around 900 nurses, who have joined the country’s public health system in 2022 alone.

The online “Nurses for Albania” platform, launched by the Ministry of Health and Social Protection, offers real employment opportunities for all nurses upon their higher education graduation or after their qualification in this field to contribute to the community’s health.

This platform guarantees a recruitment process guided by the principles of transparency, merit, professionalism and equality in order to provide a quality nursing service at all three levels of health care.

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Addressing a meeting with nurses on the International Nurse Day, Ambassador Soreca said: “I am so honoured to be here today in this symbolic location to commemorate the sacrifices and dedication of medical personnel during the COVID-19 pandemic. I want to bring to your attention and pay tribute to 3,000 health professionals, who sacrificed their lives to help others. And of course a tribute to the nurses who lost their lives during the pandemic in Albania.”

“Nurses and medical personnel in Albania helped us a lot when didn’t know the virus and helped us to mitigate its devastating impact on the population by helping and caring for patients not only physically, but also psychologically and thus lowering the infection risk and the spread of the virus,” Soreca added.

“The EU is on your side and we are committed to assisting Albania recover from the pandemic in the last 12 months,” Soreca said.

“Special diagnostic and treatment devices for COVID-19 have been donated to Albania since the beginning of this pandemic, including ambulances technically equipped with all equipment, ventilators, x-ray machines, but also scanners for more complicated cases. Albanian hospitals are in a better situation than they were a year ago,” Soreca noted.

Soreca also said the EU is pleased to have offered and delivered a shipment of ‘Pfizer’ vaccine from Austria and the bloc will keep delivering more supplies each week, to provide at least 140,000 doses donated by the EU. Albania is also a beneficiary from the regional projects on the EU’s health emergencies being implemented by the World Health Organization.

“Recent epidemiological data show a slowdown in the spread of the pandemic in Albania, yet it is important to put emphasis on the need to respect physical distancing, and personal hygiene rules. This would be the best way to honour and pay tribute to the nurses who lost their lives during the pandemic,” Sorca concluded.

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Addressing a meeting with nurses on the International Nurses Day, PM Rama said “this is the day to acknowledge we wouldn’t have succeeded the way we have done so far should we were not to invest through our whole strength, despite our insufficient opportunities, to take our health system to a whole new level, to take our hospitals to a whole new level, to take the doctors and nurses salaries to a new level and create better working conditions primarily for our nurses,” PM Rama said.

“Taking up a job position as nurse according to a merit-based system, putting an end to a horrible story of employing and firing nurses for purposes that had nothing to do with improvement of the health system and care, skills and merits of each and every one of you, has played a very important role. And having  today a highly-respected army of health professionals, doctors and nurses, with nobody faces the threat of being sacked just because of political convictions, or because someone else could take advantage of influential people or by resorting to corruption practices and take the job in the blink of an eye, is an incredible asset,” he said.

On the other hand – the Premier added – “I would like to reiterate today, now that elections are over, that the salary hike for nurses has been considerable, yet insufficient, and therefore we are committed to increase wages again by 40% within this term in office.”

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In her remarks at the event marking the International Nurses Day in Tirana, Health Minister Manastirliu expressed her gratitude to the country’s 13,820 nurses, saying they are the heart of the health-care system.

“Over these difficult months of the pandemic, I have often thought about Florence Nightingale, or The Lady with the Lamp, the epitome of the nurses’ mission, who once said: ‘I am of certain convinced that the greatest heroes are those who do their duty in the daily grind of domestic affairs whilst the world whirls as a maddening dreidel,” Manastirliu said.

“You are the embodiment of this daily grind, which was vital to each and every one of us at this time when the unusual, the fear of the unknown and the pain of losing our loved ones were among us. I will never forget the early days of last March, when everyone gathered around their family, while you left your own families to become the family of those who suffered from an insidious and dangerous virus that hit Albania and the whole world,” she said.

“It is a generation of young nurses we have provided the opportunity to take up job in the health system through a merit-based and transparent system, a new tool we established 2018, namely Nurses for Albania portal. Three years later, I am proud to say that the portal is a success story as more than 3,000 nurses have been hired through it. The pandemic, this unusual event humanity faces once in 100 years, showed our decision was right,” she said.

Health Minister noted that the investment to boost the system’s capacities to cope with the pandemic started with the human resources.

“A total of 1335 nurses were hired during the months of the pandemic and joined the frontline medical personnel in the fight against COVID-19. And these are not merely figures, but they are young boys and girls who have chosen to accomplish a noble mission to care for people and save lives,” she said.

Health Minister paid tribute to 11 Albanian nurses who lost their lives after contracting COVID-19 while serving patients.

“11 nurses who lost their lives are a huge loss for their families and friends, as well as for the health system and we will always remember them with gratitude and respect,” Manastirilu said.

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Addressing an event on the International Nurses Day (IND) at Tirana Artificial Lake Amphitheatre noted that a considerable number of nurses across the world lost their lives during the pandemic.

“We face many challenges last year and would have wished to know all the nurses we have lost because of the pandemic and we express our gratitude to the Albanian nurses,” she said.

“It has been a tough, challenging task also spiritually. We understand that during this period health services have been fragile. We in the European Federation of Nurses Association are committed to working with you. It has been a great job, in these difficult days, and I want to thank you for the tireless work you have done,” Adams said.

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