3 minutes agoCKUK patients wait two years for prosthesis
Periskopi(8 years ago)
(8 years ago)The Ortoprotetic clinic has not been supplied with prosthetics for patients lacking body members for two years. There are over 2,500 patients a year seeking to receive services at this clinic, who lack limbs, who are mainly disabled in the war. Many of them, after the war, stepped into mines, some [...]
The Ortoprotetic clinic has not been supplied with prosthetics for patients lacking body members for two years.
There are over 2,500 patients a year seeking to receive services at this clinic, who lack limbs, who are mainly disabled in the war.
Many of them have been trampled into mines after the war, some of their limbs lost during the war, others in traffic accidents, or even health problems.
We are currently out of material and pending. The help with prosthetics of the lower limbs has been very firm, but recently we are lacking in material. Patients desperately need this service”, Free Europe Radio, Lulzim Geci, director of the Orthodox Clinical Service, says.
Geci says the protests patients need are expensive.
“Material is expensive. A knee prosthetic is about 1,500 euros until more than 2,000 euros in knee. All is covered by the Ministry of Health, patients receive them for free when they have”, Geci says.
Deputy Health Minister Rrustem Musa told Radio Free Europe that it has been two years since this clinic has not been able to supply because the supply tender has been cancelled.
“We have been engaged, but the problem is the financial means, as it is high costs. The budget shared for goods and services does not cover all patients' demands. This year we're going to make the budget rescheduling so that next year more money can be made for this category of patients, who do amputations of extremes and need prosthesis”, says Musa.
He says Kosovo needs hundreds of thousands of euros to equip all those in need.
We've made a balance only for civil disabilities and cost has been 430 thousand euros for lower extreme dentures. So if all patients were covered, the cost of prosthetics would amount to about 600 thousand euros. This cost over the years, I believe, will be reduced, since when these patients receive services, then the prosthetics can also be repaired and there is no need to buy again and again, Musa added.
Volunteer doctors from various parts of the world have often come to this clinic, bringing prosthesis for patients lacking body limbs and placing them.
