Up to a year and a half waiting for the performing of choreography at QKUK

This procedure serves to diagnose heart problems, respectively, to analyze vessels that carry blood to the heart.

Depending on its outcome, the patient may refer to other procedures until surgery.

Missin é, who comes from the municipality of Obilic, about six miles [10 km] from Pristina, shows that his doctor has recommended choreography since September 2022.

I don't know why you should wait so long. I don't think it's normal to wait that long --”, he says.

Radio Free Europe spoke with him in the third week of February, when he had gone to KKUK several times to care about the term.

He had not received positive answers that day either, with the excuse that emergency priorities are in store.

Missin doubts that there may be a need to put a heart stand on a spiral that helps keep blood vessels open because, as it says, “certain tests I've done are not working out for me”.

What do the doctors say?

Cardiology director Lulzim Kamberi admits that there are long waiting lists at the clinic leading.

This, according to him, is due to the fact that patients from all over Kosovo refer to QKUK. Also, there are a large number of patients referred to by other QKUK clinics.

Whatever we have options and conditions, we're doing it. Emergency cases do not wait. They are treated immediately. We're very busy with”, Kamberi says of Radio Free Europe.

Pos in QKUK, choreographies are conducted even in some private hospitals in Kosovo, but are much more expensive.

Camber says within a day, between 10 and 13 such procedures are conducted in Cardiology.

The clinic has only two halls, which, according to Camber, is not enough.

“We are in one room, while another was renovated three months ago. We need the minimum two-three more halls”, he says.

Camber recalls that until recently it has been a commission that has compiled the list of patients who need choreography, but now cases are recorded on their own, with only one doctor's recommendation.

There were 5-6 patients registered earlier in the day, and now we have 15 and more”, he says.

Another reason that may have affected the large influx of patients is the growing awareness of citizens of health, says cardiologist Agron Qerim, who works at a private institution in Kosovo.

Waitings for a short period occur elsewhere, but no longer than a year.

We should try to give patients early, faster, safer, and safer service”, says Qreim.

How many are waiting?

Speaking on condition of anonymity, a nurse of Cardiology told REL that there are currently over 1,600 people on the waiting list for choreography.

The wait, according to her, lasts from several weeks to several months.

There are times when we call patients and say no, we've done this... There are times when they confirm they come and don't show up... But there are times when we are told that the patient is dead”, she said.

The latter, according to her, are mostly “ages over 80”.

At one of the last meetings, the Kosovo Clinical and University Hospital Service Board (SHSKUK)- The KKUK and regional hospitals urged the leaders of clinics to pay more attention to planning the term for patients.

Discussing the situation in Cardiology, the board said expectations up to a year and a half are pointless and unreasonable “”.

Asked by the REL if there are concrete plans for dealing with this problem, USKKUK Director General Elvir Azizi said:

We plan to share other tools for the Cardiology Clinic in order to provide as many services as possible and to reduce the number of pending cases”.

Azizi did not specify more, but for last year the USKKUK allocated 1.62m euros for the supply of Cardiology with redeeming material and stenta.

That year, according to a document that saw Radio Free Europe, 4,050 choreography have been carried out in Cardiology and 3,458 stenta are located.

According to the USKKUK director, very similar money has been earmarked for 2024.

But Cardiology is not the only clinic where patients face expectations. REL reported earlier for waiting up to three years at the CKUK Vascular Surgery Clinic and others.

At the time, the Ministry of Health has said that “improving the quality of services is meant to be done through decentralisation of the hospital system and reshuffle of QKUK”.

But while long expectations persist, a factor that does not help them is also a lack of doctors.

Kosovo, for years, has faced the evacuation of health staff.

Kosovo Medical Oda's data shows that, last year, 160 doctors have received the so-called certificate of Ethiopian-professional purity, which means they left Kosovo, or are in the process of leaving.

According to this idea, the fugitives who mostly emigrated to European Union countries complain of poor working conditions, low wages and mismanagement.

A Kosovo doctor's gross salary is about 1,200 euros, while in Germany, for example, it amounts to over 4,000 euros. /Radio Europe Free/