The case in Paddy, KOMF raises alarm for conditions in child health services

KOMF has stressed that although free healthcare for children is guaranteed by the Child Protection Law, lack of personnel, infrastructure conditions, insufficient supply of drugs and saving materials continue to affect the quality of treatment.

KOMF has called for urgent measures to improve conditions, increase human capacities, and create a regular system for monitoring patients' experience, stressing that the voice of parents should be part of health decision making.

Full response:

The child's right to health care is guaranteed with the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Law on Health and the Law on Child Protection. Article 42 of the Child Protection Law guarantees free health care for children, enabling them access to treatment and rehabilitation services according to high standards. The Ministry of Health is responsible for ensuring that right.

However, children continue to face challenges to access and quality of health services. According to research conducted by the Association for Patients' Rights, the KOMF member organisation, the Prizren General Hospital and the Gjilan General Hospital for measuring patient satisfaction and experience, numerous shortcomings have been calculated, especially in child health services. Patients in the Department of Pediatrics rank among departments with the lowest level of satisfaction compared to other department patients. Various factors, such as access to patients, quality of medical, nursing, and diagnostic services, infrastructure conditions and hygiene, supply of medicines, quality of food, etc. The data also shows that hygiene levels in pediatric departments are lower compared to other departments, raising serious concerns about the quality and security of child care.

According to the CoMF's Education Charter published, one of the main challenges in secondary and tescard care remains the lack of health personnel and overload of pediatric clinics. The Paddy Clinic at the University Clinical Centre in Kosovo continues to work with limited capacities and continuous overload. The number of health personnel remains insufficient in relation to the number of child patients, directly influencing the quality of service delivery.

The functioning of the new Mediatric Surgery Hospital has improved child health care at the terciar level, integrating the emergency pediatric services, trauma, recovery, and pediatric and surgical ambulances. However, much of the pediatric services continue to operate in “the old objective of the Paddy Clinic, under absolutely unacceptable infrastructure conditions that do not meet standards for providing quality and dignified services to children.

Although the Child Protection Law guarantees free health care, it is constantly reported by parents and media for lack of drugs and saving materials in primary health care, regional hospitals and Kosovo University Clinical Centre. Lack of necessary drugs and therapies can have serious consequences for children's health, while in their absence, parents are forced to provide them at their own expense, even when it comes to drugs from the Essencial List. This violates the principle of equal access to health care and creates financial burdens for families.

Currently, institutions do not possess data on the level of satisfaction of patients with health services, as there is no monitoring system for measuring patients' experience and satisfaction. Patients' experiences should serve as an important source for identifying shortcomings and improving the quality of services, while excluding them from the evaluation process is preventable and risks that real problems remain invisible and unadvised.

It is imperative that health institutions take urgent measures to improve conditions, increase human capacities, and ensure child - based quality services. Parents' voice should be an integral part of any health decision-making. Periscope.