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Politics persecutes doctors and bankrupts hospitals

2026-03-25 22:54:00, Opinione Pajtim Lutaj

Ministry

The appointment of a professional minister in the Ministry of Health was a good omen… but our Minister turns out to be a technical professor, not much of a university professor and not at all an administrator. The Minister, who comes from very consolidated systems, is not impressed by the health system that has been installed in our country, she is not blinded by TV advertisements that promote charlatanism “… comes Pr. Dr. ByrekÇyreku, performs xey operations… comes Antonio Cazanova, performs free abortions… images and photos of Pr. Dr., MSc, American, Italian, Turkish and Indian operating on the fat, mind, eyes of Albanians”. They do not listen to the deceptions and lies about false achievements, "this is the first time x operation or diagnosis is performed"... which leave our young doctors ignorant, who serve day and night in hospitals, gather patients and the madmen come, operate on the Albanian patient without even seeing him, and the next day they leave with bags full". Madam Minister, have you seen these phenomena in England and Italy, where you have served? I have not seen them in France.

Minister Sala, after the pompous presentation, due to the lack of desire to recognize reality, fell into the swamp left ready by Ogerta. QSUT is going bankrupt, while the University Ophthalmology Service has gone bankrupt. Media communications about UFO projects and imaginary plans of the Minister, the signing of former corrupt contracts, the leaving in force of anti-scientific protocols that provided evidence that their effectiveness is zero… poisoned, or rather blinded the Albanian public.

Knowing the QSUT well, the operating system down to the smallest detail, the contracts manipulated with anti-scientific protocols, in October 2025 I suggested to the Minister not to sign these contracts, but to review them before throwing signatures at the billions of Albanian taxpayers, which do not go to the patient's body as medicine, nor as examinations with the right equipment... nor to the personnel as a good salary, as continuous training, as development... but end up in the pockets of the incompetent administration, in the pockets of thieving oligarchs or corrupt to the point of murder.

The ophthalmology clinic at Tirana University Hospital has gone bankrupt.

The main role of a university clinic, the training of ophthalmologists, has been over for years. Clinical activity does not function due to poor organization, nepotistic and corrupt appointments, as well as the destructive decisions, plans, objectives, and rules of the responsible administration, from the clinic, the directorate, to the Ministry.

The University Hospital has been languishing for 3 years, the university ophthalmology clinic has been bankrupt for 6 months, the ministry does not react, the directorate does not understand, the Prime Minister flies.

I will speak about my field, Ophthalmology, because Madam Minister, out of the 4 projects that she announced as great achievements and prospects for our medicine in parliament, two were ophthalmological (lenses and corneal transplant). The MPs were "surprised" by the achievements, the MP doctors were breathing slowly to understand where they could do some kind of cc, while the minister, like a sleepwalker, read numbers... I assure you that she herself did not know what she was reading.

At the national level, the Ministry of Ophthalmology's objective for 2030 is to detect refractive errors (glasses) with broken charts and incompetent personnel in children. This shameful choice and corrupt program worsened the situation of these defects in children.

True professionals and professional associations PAAO, together with WHO, proposed as an objective project Ophthalmology 2030 “Diabetic Retinopathy Screening with AI”. For the first time in our country, in the field of medicine, in 2021, the diagnosis of Diabetic Retinopathy with AI was carried out in practice. A photo of the retina of a diabetic patient was sent to iCloud to an AI program, which within 3 minutes gave us a response: a detailed report on the diagnosis and stage of RD. My paper was presented at the www.paao.al congress and was highly appreciated by WHO, professors from the University of Liverpool, England, as well as the Academy of Sciences of Albania. Madam Minister, the program is in your office. Remove it, Madam Minister Sala, remove this nonsense, because you are doing honor to Albanian Ophthalmology, the Ministry, and patients with diabetes. Your Ophthalmology 2030 objective not only does not take us to the EU, but it shames the Albania 2030 program. Remove it and put in place “Retinopathy Screening with AI.” This is the future, you need to understand that AI and a good doctor have improved diagnostics by 95%.

This is why the university ophthalmology clinic went bankrupt.

1- The Ministry, with corrupt intent, has been prohibiting retinal surgeries for years, this leads to the blindness of 200-300 people per year in our country.

2- The Ministry conscientiously and diligently prohibits the performance of corneal transplants, when all the conditions are in place. Ogerta has been dragging it around for 8 years, contracting private hospitals that even those cases they have performed have paid 2-6 thousand euros. Albana could have done it in a month, she issued a decision and took it to the Greek calendars, while Professor Sala sold it out completely. She boasted to the deputies that the Ministry will disburse €250,000 this year for corneal transplants, without explaining at all how, where, when, who!? I have written to her three times that corneal transplants can be done very well within a month, if the Ministry has the good will and is relieved of the corrupt burdens of the system that she found in the ministry in September 2025.

3- The Ministry, by order, has distorted the protocol for the treatment of chronic retinal diseases with Anti-VEGF. At our request, the state has introduced the best preparations of the time, for which we doctors and patients thank it every day. No, Ogerta has issued an order that patients benefit from it for only one year, then let them go blind. The subsequent administration has completely worsened this protocol. The patient who needs it does not immediately receive this preparation, but must be put on the administration's waiting list and the poor patient benefits from it after a two to three month delay, when the first treatment is an emergency, an emergency, Madam Professor Minister. Ultimately, the state spends millions without any real effect on the patient's eye.

4- LENSES. Lenses, that's how Ogerta named this truly great project in ophthalmology, and he also taught it to the Prime Minister. Lenses are intraocular implants that are implemented in the eye after cataract or cataract surgery. The contract package, even with its flaws, corrupt practices, catastrophic prices but materials that are not at all justifiable, has helped many Albanian patients, but it has been stopped for 6 months. Professor Minister, out of the 4 projects that she signed and received the votes of the deputies, there was also the lens program. The minister did not know that, at the moments when she spoke in parliament, it had been two months since the lenses in the QSUT had been missing for 6 months. From October 2025 and today there are no lenses in the QSUT, 20-30 patients a day return and wander around, mainly poor pensioners. The people heard it on TV, so patients, but also doctors, must manifest for their rights, because the money has been paid for these nonsense. The director should go to the ophthalmology reception desk every day at 8 am to touch this truth.

Department

The stamp of this amnesiac state at the Tirana University Hospital was placed by the new director, who called on every citizen and patient to denounce doctors who take money from patients in exchange for public health services. This was the impetus for me to make this reminder. The director opens a campaign of intimidation of medical personnel serving at the University Hospital, looking for individuals or structured criminal groups, when these individuals and groups are in the administration she leads and in the ministry she commands.

The director of the most important public health institution in the country, before making a policy, must provide answers and solutions to patients who die, are blinded, are misled, lied to, and are disappointed by the services at the QSUT, by misorganization, and mismanagement.

The director should make public every complaint that comes to her hermetic office every day, yes, yes, every complaint about lack of medicines, lack of equipment broken intentionally or unintentionally, lack of organization... from ophthalmology alone, from October to today, dozens of patients have come to her complaining about missing lenses, about being late to receive Anti-VEGF medications, about not performing retinal surgeries or corneal transplants, completely due to the unwillingness of the administration, the minister, the director, and the impossibility of the inefficient system.

This situation reminded me of 2001, when I was the General Director of the QSUT, just recovering from the political-criminal catastrophe of 1997. Unbalanced by the political squabbles of the left… three governments… Meta, Majko, Nano… a campaign of health personnel began in the media. Interviews were seen on the sidewalks of Tirana on TV: “…do doctors receive lek in the hospital…”, and the people’s camp, which was fed by politics, said yes, but without denouncing anyone. Politics won over hospital personnel. Since then, I have understood that politics keeps this pressure alive, to hide, justify the deeds, the capillary corruption, nepotistic appointments, the theft of the people’s health. Horrible! Unimaginable, corruption with patients’ medicines, when all over the world hospitals are given staggering donations to have hospitals as rich as possible in medicines and equipment; donations for studies... in my country they steal even the little that the state grants...

At that time, journalist Rezart Xhaxhiu came to the office of the general director. The first question: “Do doctors take lek from patients?” No, I told him flatly. Our doctors, middle and lower-level personnel work in extremely difficult conditions. It is not considered corruption for a patient to give a nurse 200 lek after a service, nor 1000 lek to a doctor after a visit or operation, this is respect. I noticed that the journalist did not like my answer and did not delay the second question: “We are talking about corruption in healthcare.” Even though I was convinced that there were cases of fraud, embezzlement, non-implementation of protocol by dishonest personnel, because the system did not exist either, I challenged the journalist: Yes, I answered, there is corruption, but corruption occurs in the directorate, the ministry… but not in the doctor-patient relationship. If you find a doctor who asks the patient for lek before the service, setting a condition "I won't operate on you if you don't give me x lek", I will make an example of him so that such a phenomenon never happens again in a public hospital. Rezart Xhaxhiu and I have been friends since then and I salute him.

Time proved me right. Now, nearly 25 years later, it is not the doctors who are corrupt, but the illegal and incompetent institutions, administrations, and commissions that make tenders, appoint hospital personnel, and elect bosses and directors who have no connection whatsoever to the job, bought through corruption or nepotism.

Administration & Ministerial

While Deputy Minister Rama, intoxicated by the success of foreign policy, which has actually placed Albania on a well-deserved pedestal, to the extent that these years will remain in history as the years of Albania, has completely lost touch with domestic reality, with the daily life of our people, with their education, with their health, with the troubles of life… he has lost the main role of a Deputy Minister, the role of administrator. He administers with SMS, which he does not even read at all, he only transfers. Concrete example: an SMS is sent to Rama, Rama without reading it sends it to the minister or director of the field; the incompetent director or minister responds, 90% of the time they deceive him. Rama does not even see their response, but sends it to the complainant… a worthless vicious circle.

No, Mr. K/Minister, it doesn't work like that. Become an administrator for a day, because your administration is out of order, the hierarchy does not exist, it is incompetent and corrupt, already frustrated by SPAK, it is completely paralyzed, it does not perform any action: it can neither steal, nor lie, nor spy, nor advance, nor sign; the system is paralyzed, employees feel terrorized... It is no longer time to make humor and stories about fake doctorates, plagiarisms, declaring us the "homeland of plagiarism", with diplomas of lawyers and nurses... If you become an administrator, administration shows the performance of the executive. Administration means following the issue until it is resolved, controlling it, learning from it and taking measures to fix it.

It is not enough to say “stop fictitious diplomas”. What about doing a study: where do these fictitious diplomas come from? If you don’t want to listen to specialists in the fields, ask ChatGPT, ask Diella for a study: how many law degrees does this country produce in a year? How many nursing degrees? How many graduates without any training, without teaching, because it is known that they do not do practice. There are universities that issue nursing degrees, and even doctors without doing a single hour of practice. Universities run by your ministers or former ministers, who after selling you the licenses, are now rectors, tutors, deans of fictitious universities… you are entering Guinness.

The facts show that you are administering very poorly. What did you do with the authors of plagiarism, the sale of fake diplomas, when we brought them to the table in 2015? 50% of doctorates were fake. Instead of penalizing them, regulating the law and eliminating these obscurantist practices, you legalized doctorates (fake doctorates have now become associate professors) and promoted the structured criminal group of the destruction of higher education, especially at UMT.

You don't know how to administer, you only know how to mock. You mocked at the Shkodra rally about doctorates in medicine that were copied by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, you mock at press conferences about fictitious diplomas of lawyers, in podcasts, at party and government meetings, when you should do the exact opposite: take responsibility. After 13 years in power, you should take responsibility, urgently stop fictitious graduations, because you are turning the country into the homeland of fictitious diplomas, which are first destroying the budget of Albanian families who invest in vain in children, you destroyed the youth and the future of the country...

Then you must admit that your incompetence in administration, management and organization; your inaction made us the homeland of plagiarism and fake diplomas. Who accepts us into the EU with this education and health system?

What have you done and what is your administration doing for the incompetent director, for the teacher, for the doctor, for the prosecutor, lawyer or OPGJ who does not do his job well? Who commands an incompetent director at MEKI who has made a mess of professional training? Your managerial mentality is destructive. A few years ago I denounced a lecturer who was selling grades, diplomas... and I took the facts to your amorphous minister. The minister's response: "Take him to the prosecutor's office!!!" But what do we have the administration for?

What did you do when real professionals told you in writing and verbally over the years, "change your head"? Nothing! Then we shouldn't be surprised why university education has degraded and university hospitals are going bankrupt.

What happened (I'm speaking administratively) with the thugs who came to your office with guns or the economic crime worms of the General Directorate of the State Police who attack businesses without a prosecutor's order? What did you do? Nothing. You were content to talk about the thugs at conferences or to accept infantile SMS messages from the general director of the police to subordinates who broke the law: "I've dealt with this job, boss, I apologized to the complainants, what more can I do, boss," while the worms are still lurking in the ranks of the police today, ready to attack any other business.

No, Mr. K/Minister, these crooked trees and many, many others that have suffocated the administration should be cleaned up with administrative measures and not be charged to justice. Let justice do its job.

I don't want to quote great philosophers... but at least read what the great people of our country write: Dritëro Agolli on the intellectual/professional, Robert Ndrenika on justice, or Alfred Moisiu: "To whom are you leaving this country?"

Pr. Pajtim LUTAJ, MD, PhD
Ophthalmologist, “Grand Master”
Professor of UMT & Hospital Practitioner QSUT
Diploma in Ophthalmology, University Paris 6, France
Former intern, Attaché and Assistant of Paris Hospitals
QSUT Ophthalmology Service & VISION Clinic Tirana
President of PAAO www.paao.al, Member of CIO & AAO