SCHEME REVEALED/ The real reason why foreign tourists come to Albania is the hospitals!

 Kliko këtu për të tjera
Voxpress:

From prison, Ilir Beqaj defends the sterilization concession: A success story for Albanian surgery

2026-03-08 10:21:43Aktualitet SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX

Former Minister of Health, Ilir Beqaj, has reacted from prison about the sterilization concession. 

His statement was published by lawyer Ermal Yzeiraj. 

In his reaction, Beqaj focuses on the termination of the 10-year concession contract for the sterilization service of surgical instruments, which according to him ends today, March 8, 2026.

He calls this contract a "Partnership for Progress," arguing that the public-private partnership model brought transformation to Albanian surgery and improved sterilization standards in public hospitals.

According to the former minister, the contract signed in December 2015 enabled the modernization of surgical rooms, the supply of new instruments and the reduction of hospital infections, while emphasizing that over ten years hundreds of thousands of surgical interventions have been performed in optimal sterile conditions.

Beqaj also argues that the termination of the contract and the transfer of the service to a public enterprise does not constitute a failure of the concession, but according to him, it is evidence of the success of the model followed. He emphasizes that the infrastructure, equipment and experience created over these years will be transferred to the state structure that will continue providing the service.

PPP - Partnership For Progress

Today, March 8, 2026, the concession contract for "integrated services for the supply of personalized sterile sets of surgical instruments" ends.

The contract was signed on 10.12.2015, while the criminal investigation into it began on 14.12.2015 (only 4 days after the signing). Charges have been filed over the years for 11 different criminal offenses and to this day there is still no final decision on these charges. It has been investigated so far by 5 prosecutors and tried so far by 14 different judges.

Prosecutors have filed charges as in a game of Russian roulette, while judges, as in a "driving school" of justice reform, have reclassified criminal offenses.

Starting tomorrow, this integrated service will continue to be offered to Albanian patients who are operated on every day by around 450 surgeons in 110 surgical rooms in all public hospitals by a newly created public enterprise specifically to offer this integrated service.

In 2013, when I took office as Minister of Health, surgical instruments and autoclaves for their sterilization dated back to the friendship with communist China (1978). In June of that year, the Institute of Public Health recommended the closure of several surgical rooms in the QSUT due to intolerable high microbial load, while in November of that same year, the Ombudsman, after a 2-year investigation, reported that surgical room nurses buy detergents with their own money because hospitals have no money.

In 2013, in the conditions of a lack of funds available for investments (40 million USD were the Ministry of Health's arrears to suppliers), macro-fiscal constraints on public borrowing (in 2013 public debt was 74% of GDP, while today it is 53%) and a lack of know-how in our hospital structures, the concession contract was an efficient solution that enabled Albanian surgery within 2015 to undergo a radical transformation and an epochal 35-year breakthrough, bringing it to high contemporary European standards.

Today, the solution proposed and implemented in 2015, namely placing all links of infection risk in operating rooms under a single responsibility, turns out to have been wise, correct, fair, and sustainable.

Anyone who thinks and declares that the state is nationalizing "sterilization" is mistaken. For the citizen, the service has always been public, but in operating rooms it has been made possible in partnership with private enterprise.

Anyone who thinks and declares that nationalization is evidence of the failure of the concession is mistaken. Seriously so. On the contrary, it is evidence of the success of the contract.

For this contract, in 10 years, 12.9 billion lek were spent.
Thanks to this contract, in 10 years, about 575 thousand surgical interventions were performed in optimal sterile conditions.

Thanks to this contract, from 50 thousand operations per year in 2013, 67 thousand operations were performed in 2025 (the population from 3 million in 2013 is 2.4 million in 2025). That is, in the same surgical rooms and by the same surgeons, 35% more patients were served in the last year of the contract compared to 2013, this being also an increase by the same percentage in the efficiency of Albanian public surgery.

Thanks to this contract, due to the reduction in nosocomial infections and modern minimally invasive instruments, the average hospital stay of surgical patients decreased by 1.7 days (from 6.5 days to 4.8 days). So, in 10 years, 970 thousand days of hospital stay were saved. 970 thousand days of disability and illness were also saved.

Thanks to this contract, private partners invested over 3 billion lek in equipment and technology which are now being transferred free of charge to the newly created state-owned enterprise.

Thanks to this contract, over 100 thousand new and modern surgical instruments were supplied.

Thanks to this contract, 10 modern sterilization units were put into operation in addition to the central one at the QSUT.

Thanks to this contract, the sterilization service of surgical instruments is carried out according to ISO standards.

Thanks to this contract, 280 people were employed, whose monthly remuneration paid 620 million lek to the state treasury (TAP's contribution) over 10 years. The concessionaire operator paid 280 million lek in direct taxes and duties to the state treasury.

Thanks to this contract, 40 lives have been saved each year from the significant reduction in nosocomial infections.

Thanks to this contract, Albanians have lived longer and healthier lives.

Thanks to this contract, the "meditëmebë" brought in over 10 years by the partner is transferred without compensation to the new state-owned enterprise.

Put on one side of the scale the costs of 12.9 billion lek in 10 years and on the other the financial benefits that I presented above. Do the calculations yourself whether this contract was profitable or not. For the health of Albanians, for the quality of healthcare and for public finances.

In all these years, due to ignorance, envy and political blindness, PPPs have been demonized a lot. This contract is just one of 235 concession contracts in Albania signed after 1990. But this contract turns out to have been a PPP twice. In addition to a Public-Private Partnership, it was also a Partnership for Progress.

Next week it will be 9 years since I left the post of Minister of Health. I held that position for 3.5 years (09/2013 - 03/2017). I am proud of this contract and especially of what was achieved during its implementation as one of the good works that were done in the Albanian health sector when I had the honor and privilege to hold the position of Minister.


Në përputhje me standarded JTI

Video

SHIKO KANALIN NE YOUTUBE
×