Job offers still without a degree: Kosovo as medicine factory going abroad

After June, when she completes nursing studies at one of Kosovo's private colleges, she will be equipped with licenses and then start traveling abroad.

The employers from whom she has received the offers are just waiting for her confirmation as well as the date she will start working.

“After seven or eight months I'll be there”, says Hope, whose true identity is known for editing Radio Free Europe, broadcast Periscope

The salaries offered, according to her, are much higher than the maximum salary of about 840 euros gross that a nurse can get in Kosovo.

The “is basically between 3,600 and 3,800 euros per person. The state tax is issued, and there are some 2,600 to 2,700 euros [neto]”, says Hope.

But, it is not just a salary that motivates him to move out of Kosovo.

She does not want to face bad experiences, in which, according to her, her colleagues went through work competitions.

“Unfortunately, things in Kosovo go with known [nepotism]. I don't have anyone familiar. So, for me, the primary thing is to go to foreign countries rather than stay in Kosovo. There, college degree you're known for, welcome you as a nurse, and there's no need to see who your mother, father, or who you're familiar with, said Hope.

It is not the only one targeting European Union countries.

The trend of leaving health personnel from Kosovo to Western countries, which has been marked for years and years, is continuing further, Kosovo Health Unions Federation say.

If this trend is not contained, according to the president of the federation, Tevide Imer, the country risks being left without doctors and nurses of various profiles.

The strange and absurd “is that Kosovo is producing health workers, as if they were feeding it. Private and public [education] institutions are producing quadros to sell”, Imer points out.

According to Federation data, but also the Kosovo Medical Association, from 2018 to now, about 850 doctors have left the country, most of whom have fled to Western countries for employment reasons.

For the same reasons, they say, more than 300 nurses leave Kosovo within the year to work mainly in Germany but also in other European countries.

A study by the Institute for Advanced Studies APU, in Pristina, published in October last year, which compares employment in Germany and Kosovo, as well as sectors and salaries according to purchasing power, shows that during 2019 to 2023, a total of 9,416 Kosovo citizens have been employed in the health sector in Germany.

Meanwhile, during the same period, the same sector in Kosovo has had 14,786 employees.

Doctors and nurses “lost”

The chairman of the Kosovo Medical Oda, Plerat Sejdiu, tells Radio Free Europe that only during the period of 2018-2022, the certificate of professional purity from Oda has been obtained by about 700 doctors.

This certificate, according to him, is essential for employment, especially in Germany. The trend of leaving Kosovo doctors, he says, has continued even in the years that followed until now.

“In the current year are 31 [mortem plants], so far. It is estimated that about 90 percent of those who received certificates have gone. We have about 850 doctors who have left Kosovo. In general, if we calculate with those who complete the Faculty of Medicine in Pristina, Tirana and Tetovo, we have approximately six generations lost”, says Sejdiu.

The public health system in Kosovo is mainly supplied with doctors leaving three universities -- the Pristina, Tirana and Tetovo.

They must be kuadours that renew the campus of Kosovo public health system doctors.
The Kosovo Medical Oda data, according to Sejdiu, shows that last year by these three universities, about 180 doctors have entered the labour market in Kosovo.

Also, in 2024, about 220 doctors have fled the public health sector, from which 111 have fled abroad, 92 have retired, while 15 active age doctors have died.

“means, we're in the minus every year”, says Sejdiu.

However, he adds, on average, over a year in Kosovo remain unemployed about 500 doctors.

Unemployment, according to him, is the first reason doctors leave for employment abroad.

The new generation of doctors, he says, are the most ambitious about learning “, and are not satisfied with the quality of specialisations offered in Kosovo.

In the specialisation phase, the salaries of young doctors behave around 700 euros grossly, Sejdiu says, adding that this is discouraging to them.

“The common provider of all of this is the lack of perspective for them in the health system in Kosovo”, Sejdiu points out.

To be employed in Western countries, a large number of nurses have left Kosovo, Imer confirmed by the Federation of Kosovo Health Unions.

“in 2023, the documentation to escape has received 713 [infermies]”, says Imer, adding that the trend of the escape of nurses continues further.
A daily nurse named “is estimated to leave for Germany, which is about 300 in one year”, she points out.

Imer also supports claims of hope for nepotism during employment in the public health system in Kosovo.

This is very true. The point is that [nepotism] is covered so well with paper [the documents] that you can't find out. It happens that a nurse is waiting 12-13 years [for employment]... People are tired of waiting for him, or praying for the policy to hire”, Imer points out.

The Kosovo Health Ministry has not responded to Radio Free Europe's question of whether there is a plan or strategy to curb the escape of health workers for employment abroad, as well as to prevent the alleged causes of this departure.

The result?
The Kosovo Medical Oda and the Federation of Kosovo Health Unions consider that the country's ruling authorities should create a long-term strategy that would curb the trend of leaving health personnel.

On the contrary, according to Sejdiu, the departure of doctors, who are in the specialization phase, leaves primary medicine, or Family Medicine Centers, out of control.
There's a series of health houses that are closed because they don't have doctors. This is the first wave. The second wave means that they have already only started hitting regional hospitals, where there is no renewal [with doctors]. The third wave will hit the Kosovo University Clinical Centre (QKUK), but shortly later”, Sejdiu points out.

He adds that at QKUK, in Pristina, most doctors of different profiles are concentrated.

This approach, as he claims, shows the lack of an employment strategy by the Ministry of Health, which would have to disseminate Quadrots across other regions of Kosovo.

Imer also suggests that, in the event primary medicine is not contained in the flight trend abroad, the biggest hit will be taken.

“Coordinators with whom I have permanent contact say that in 2030 there will be no family doctor”, says Imer.

She adds that it is necessary for competent governing authorities to create sustainable health policies and strategies that eliminate the causes of escape of health personnel abroad.

If this does not happen, according to her, the future of the public health sector is completely uncertain.

In some form, to create uncertainty about what I, at this age at which I am [50], would often think of leaving... maybe, taking the children and leaving. If I were to create a job, today I would sign and leave”, Imeri ends.

Meanwhile, hope is of the opinion that everyone thinks that his career and future will continue in his native country has grown and developed.

If conditions are the same [in Kosovo], then my career and my life continue in Germany or Switzerland. The moment it gets better in Kosovo and I'm hoping it gets better. I'll definitely be here to give it my best to contribute to my country, my country and my loved ones”. /Periscope/