Newspaper Panorama reports that around 60% of the hospital directors have handed in their resignation today to Deputy Minister of Health Mira Rakacolli, after phone calls from high officials from the Ministry of Health.
This brings an end to the resistance of the hospital directors against their summary dismissal two days ago by Prime Minister Edi Rama because of what he called their “main moral responsibility for the mismanagement and dirtiness of the hospitals they direct.”
Although Prime Minister Rama demanded their resignation within 24 hours, none of the hospital directors obliged. Many of them claimed that they couldn’t leave their position because of the holiday season, which caused an unpredictable influx of patients. Their sudden resignation would cause problems in the daily management of the hospitals.
The public hospitals are the second category of government institutions of which the Prime Minister has demanded complete surrender. Previously, he demanded the same from the directors of the Asset Registration Offices, because they would have violated legal deadlines. All directors resigned immediately, even though no administrative procedure had started.
The wave of forced resignations are the result of Prime Minister Rama’s populist initiative to “co-govern with the people.” It should be noted that the husband of Deputy Minister Rakacolli, hospital director Perlat Kapisyzi, has not been fired.
Meanwhile, there is no official response from the Ministry of Health to what appears an enormous scandal with the hemodialysis concession, which, in spite of not having made a single investment according to their contract, has made a €380,000 profit last year.
