The high number of people affected by Covid in Albania and the lack of testing capacities by the Institute of Public Health, has made many citizens turn to the dispensary of lung diseases for the x-ray.
The long queues of citizens, and the lack of respect for distances, especially when it comes to suspects with Covid-19, seem to have taken the situation out of control. The system of numbers is no longer working either.
This is the fastest and least expensive way to diagnose Covid-19, so doctors and citizens are applying it en masse: “When it comes to tampons here, the graph is done in minutes, there are no tampons. The COVID-19 is near you. Fever, body rash, headache with loss of appetite. We had fever for a week, we had taken medication but we had like fatigue and we were forced to come here. The doctor thought we could do a scoop or the x-ray to better see the condition."
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| People in queues at the Dispensary in Tirana |
Let me see the x-ray then I will have the tampon. Let me see where I am with the x-ray. Although according to the regulation, patients have to schedule x-rays, this is not working.
According to information received from this institution currently provides 500 services per day. While every doctor has to make 21 visits a day, according to Euronews Albania sources, the number has already doubled or tripled.
This institution has repeatedly requested the intervention of the police to respect anti-covid measures, but according to internal sources, the presence of the police has not changed the situation.
The cost of an x-ray in private hospitals ranges from 2000-3000 leks while the lung scanner costs 250 thousand leks.
According to Euronews Albania sources, there have been cases when the suspected citizens with COVID, who went for an x-ray, felt bad and the ambulance had to intervene to transport them to the hospital.