Data provided by BIRN shows that about 93 percent of medicines found at the central pharmacies of Mother Teresa University Hospital Center in Tirana are expired - the damage is accumulated year after year and reaches the amount of 447 million leks, while thousand of hundreds of patients suffer the consequences of the lack of medicines.
At least four times a year, Fatjon Mara, 43, arrives at the Pediatric Hospital in Tirana with troublesome questions. His son is diagnosed with a chronic blood disease six years ago and from that time, the life of both of them is shared between the home and the hospital."My son requires treatment at least four times a year. Sometimes the main illness causes to him other disorders and I am obliged to spend up to two weeks in other wards," Mara told to BIRN.
The health fluctuations are the main concern for Mara. But besides them, the 43-year-old has often had to wonder if he would find the right medication in the hospital or if the next treatment would improve his son's life.
In the six years of intensive therapy, he claims that there have been cases when he ran toward the pharmacies.
"...I have been forced to buy expensive drugs several times," Mara told.
The lack of medical medicines is one of the main concerns of hundreds of thousend of patients and their family members and a persistent "gangrene" of the health system in Albania over the last two decades.
However, "a mountain" with expired medicines was raised year after year in the central pharmacy of the University Hospital Center "Mother Teresa" in Tirana, while the sick were suffering the consequences of their absences.
BIRN provided an inventory report of drugs found at the QSUT central pharmacy until May 9, 2018, and processed the data after dropping them into a database.
The obtained analysis shows that about 93 percent of the medicines at the central pharmacy have expired and only 7 percent of them were still usable for patients. .