The Prosecution is investigating the two recent suicides of patients being treated for COVID-19 at Shefqet Ndroqi hospital in Tirana.
According to reports, investigations are underway to establish why they took their own life and whether negligence or lack of care was a part of it.
One of those who took their life, the father of an ex-MP, had allegedly managed to gain access to a phone (through bribing someone) and had called a neighbour to speak about the conditions in the hospital. It is alleged he was shocked at what he saw and that he would never have agreed to be hospitalised if he knew what it was like there.
From the published transcript of the call, it appears that individuals aren’t allowed to contact family members or anyone outside the hospital.
A 65-year-old man took his life last night and a 29-year-old just over two weeks before. They both jumped from the fourth and third floor of the hospital respectively. It’s reported a third person tried to jump last night but was stopped by hospital staff.
The Albanian Nurses Association has spoken out on the suicides, noting that medical staff are also at risk. They said that staff are overworked and overwhelmed from managing the crisis. Adding that there is a significant lack of medical staff to treat patients, this results in a drop in the quality of care that can be offered. They also said there is no social worker or psychologist available to patients despite the psychological risk of the disease on individuals.
Other factors noted included total isolation from family members, including telephone contact and the stress of seeing people in severe conditions and losing their lives.
“How many lives must be lost for the institutions to react and put right the number of employees servicing patients in hospitals? The only thing left for us is to pray for the sick,” they wrote.
