Tirana Regional Hospital Centre “Shefqet Ndroqi”, which treats patients with respiratory diseases throughout the country, has been equipped with another life-saving medical device for the treatment of patients in serious condition with lung and heart problems.
Today, the Minister of Health and Social Protection, Albana Koçiu, inspected the latest investment to be added to the fleet of modern medical equipment that has saved hundreds of lives at the Tirana Regional Hospital Centre “Shefqet Ndroqi”.
Minister Koçiu highlighted that the new medical device, ECMO (Extracorporeal Oxygenation Membrane), is the first of its kind in Albania and serves as the patient’s lung.
Such an advanced medical device helps patients with serious health problems, especially in cases where the lungs and heart are not functioning properly.
The ECMO machine continuously pumps blood from the body and then distributes it through devices that increase oxygen and remove carbon dioxide until the patient is stabilized.
“I believe that together, the Ministry of Health and Social Protection, but also the administrative staff of the hospitals, must continue working to create better working conditions for you to have at your disposal high-tech equipment such as the ECMO we have just seen, which will bring a higher level of excellence in the services you provide,” stated Minister Koçiu during the meeting with the doctors.
Dr. Alban Hatibi, Head of the Department of Resuscitation, said: “We are very lucky to receive this machine. It is called ECMO, or extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, and is used for critically ill patients”. According to him, this machine will also be used for special operations such as heart and lung surgery conducted outside the body.
The director of Tirana Regional Hospital Centre “Shefqet Ndroqi”, Silvana Bala, said, “It is a success for our medicine to have such a machine, which I did not think would come so soon”.
The staff of Tirana Regional Hospital Centre “Shefqet Ndroqi” successfully treated cardiac emergencies and internal diseases after the incident that occurred at the Emergency Department of Mother Teresa University Hospital Centre.
For this, Health Minister Koçiu thanked the hospital’s entire team of doctors and nurses at this hospital for all their support during the time when the Central Emergency Service was on reduced service.
“You have done a fantastic, selfless job, especially for the cardiac emergencies that were the last to return to Mother Teresa University Hospital Centre. You have maintained a flow that has shown, in one way or another, that you are capable of handling even more than the current load in these departments. This has once again shown that we made the right decision when we decentralised this type of function to other hospital structures. It has definitely shown us that the decentralisation and distribution of services to other hospital structures levels up the hospital service,” Koçiu stressed.
The minister said that the salary increase for 20,000 general practitioners and nurses, which came into effect on 1 July, will be an even greater opportunity to bring excellence and professionalism closer to the health system”.
During the interview, the Minister also spoke about the incident at the Oncology Hospital of the Mother Teresa University Hospital Centre.
“I know that many of you are also morally offended, because you don’t see yourself in this story and you definitely don’t believe that this story includes everyone. The real face of the health system is you, who work with dedication and commitment every day. That is why this story has not been able to tarnish the white shirts of doctors and nurses in the health sector, but we have to go beyond this level and show that only work and honour are the keywords that move us forward and that the entire health system embodies,” concluded Albana Koçiu, Minister of Health and Social Welfare.