United Nations in a recent report on the response plan for socio-economic recovery to Covid-19 has warned that the health system in Albania is in danger of being overloaded by the Covid-19 pandemic.
This could lead to less attention being paid to preventable and treatable diseases and, as a result, deaths from the latter will overtake the loss of lives caused by the pandemic.
Albania’s health system may soon be overloaded by the COVID-19 pandemic, if not properly supported. As stated in the Situation Analysis, deaths from the pandemic itself could soon be surpassed by deaths due to preventable or treatable diseases, which could not be further managed due to the dysfunction of the health system,” the report said.
Furthermore, the report highlights the risk existing if the treatment of other diseases is bypassed. This is influenced, among other things, by the fact that a good part of the budget has been reallocated to Covid-19 and attention has been reduced to the treatment and prevention of other diseases.
It should be noted that public spending on health as part of GDP is lower in Albania (2.97%) than in most Southeast European countries, and forecasts for 2020-2022 show a slight decrease to 2.94% by 2022.
This trend is particularly troubling if we are to build and strengthen a better health system. The WHO projection for 2020-2022 shows that Albania will spend less than 10% of its total public money on health for the next three years. The decline in resources for primary care is worrying.
The strategy for the development of primary care in Albania requires a budget increased to 25%. The important role of primary care in the response and cure of COVID 19 is important,” was written in the report./abcnews.al
