When you don't have the money to go to private, you have to wait”, patients wait up to three years for QKUK services

Now, just after all that waiting, I've managed to perform the operation on foot”, Zadja says.

She had problems with blood veins and is about to complete her recovery at the hospital. He says that his long wait for surgery has burdened both his illness and his psychological state.

A patient operated from veins to foot at the Vascular Clinic, QKUK, Pristina, September 2022.
Like Zahrija there are hundreds of other patients in various QKUK clinics, waiting for months or years to undergo operations. Some fail because they die in the meantime.

The director of the Vascular Surgery Clinic, Hajriz Rudari, says the expectations were even longer until two years ago, when the clinic he runs had no operating room and the service was performed at other clinics.

Waiting has lasted “4 to five years”, he says.

We now have an operating room, but we have a lack of anesthesiologists”, Rudari tells Radio Free Europe.

According to him, seriously ill patients are treated with priority, and others wait.

“The question of venine operating is pathology that even if you wait, the patient does not risk anything”, Rudari says.

Patients waiting to set the term on waiting lists, KKUK, Pristina, September 2022.
The Vascular Surgery Clinic is the only one in Kosovo dealing with the pathology of veins, arteries, diabetes feet and others. In the last six months, about 200 operations have been conducted there, including emergency cases and waiting lists. The clinic operates with 13 surgeons and has 24 beds for patients from all over Kosovo.

“When you don't have the money to go to private, you have to wait”
The expected similar situation is also in the QKUK's Radiology Clinic.
Pajazi Ademi says doctors have recommended giving him wing radiation in February. The term for this service, also known as the TT, is on September 16.

I'm waiting. I've been doing it in the 11th month, but I've been called and I've been given a date for this month. Waiting is hard, but when you don't have the money to go to private [institution], you have to wait”, says this pensioner from Pristina, complaining about deteriorating health conditions.

The director of Radiology Clinic, Shkkanje Nuza, admits that cases of ambulance wait 10 to 11 months for services, while hospitals, according to her, have priorities.

“ [Expectations occur] because in some Kosovo municipalities, radiation is not being carried out, even though they have” devices, Nuza tells Radio Free Europe, but without specifying any municipalities.

There are times when patients from the waiting list die
Some 30 radiologs work in the Radiology Clinic, and within a day over 20 radiation is performed.

REL has managed to see a list of patients waiting for CT in this clinic and for the last name on the list, it figures August 1, 2023.

The list of patients waiting for CT at Radiology Clinic and for the last name on the list figures August 1, 2023.

“List, from time to time, undergos changes because there are patients who perform work even in private hospitals. There are times when older patients die”, says a Radiology nurse who does not want to be identified.

Antigona is another woman in her 30s, from the Lipjan municipality who has waited three months to undergo breast surgery at the QKUK's Toratric Surgery Clinic.

She broke into the hall on September 8th.

The wait has been pretty heavy, because I could”, she said briefly about REL, until it was ready for surgery.

In this clinic, where breast and chest cage diseases are surgically treated, there are over 500 patients on the waiting list for services.

Director Nazmi Kolgeci says there are times when the patient on the list is called by medical staff, but family members report that he is dead.

We only have one operating room. We can't afford to have all of this huge flow of patients here. We have a priority lung and Bay”, says Kolgeci for Radio Free Europe.

According to him, the waiting list has been extended by the pandemic COVID-19ʹ diseases that occasionally affect patients ' lungs.

The Toral Clinic has only one hall where surgery is performed.

What is the solution?
Following the REL's interest in the waiting lists, it has been agreed that Spring Zejroullah Raci, the task of acting director general of the Kosovo Clinical and University Hospital Service, has held a meeting last week with the clinic leaders, where there are long lists of waiting for patients. The meeting teaches that a solution has been required to reduce the number of patients waiting.

Except for the three clinics he visited REL is taught that patients wait long for certain services offered by other clinics.

Other clinics within KKUK also have lists of patients waiting for services such as radiation, surgery, etc.

The REL, on this issue, has also been addressed to the Health Ministry(MSH), which vows to make “transformation of the health system”.

“The improvement of the quality of services is meant to be done through decentralisation of the hospital system and the reshuffle of QKUK, as well as the strengthening of regional hospitals and local health system”, the REL says in a written statement, submitted.

From MSH, they also say that, through the development of advanced centres and new specialization and subservization programmes, “can improve service quality and at the same time reduce the time of receiving”.

“Anesthesiology will be a priority in sharing new specialisations that are being prepared”, the Health Ministry say, commenting on the lack of anesthesiologists as one of the main obstacles to conducting operations.
Public health institutions in Kosovo for years have faced lack of anesthesiologists.

As reasons, they have mentioned poor working conditions and wages, according to them, low.

The gross wage of doctors in Kosovo is 630 euros.

The Kosovo government has said the new wage bill, envisioning growth, is expected to appear in the vote soon.

Up until then, health workers' expectations for higher wages will continue, but the expectations of the patients for services, which do not seem to be quickly reduced.