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Changes in the Order of Doctors/ Koçiu: Improve services, do not harm anyone

2024-09-12 14:05:00, Aktualitet CNA

Changes in the Order of Doctors/ Koçiu: Improve services, do not harm

Minister of Health and Social Protection, Albana Koçiu

The Minister of Health and Social Protection, Albana Koçiu, presented the amendments to the law on the "Order of Doctors" in the Assembly.

Koçiu stated that managers of public hospitals of any level are prohibited from being managers of private health clinics at any level.

She said that the government's proposals are related to the need to ensure that their priority remains on public services and to improve them, without harming patients.

The Minister stated that even after these changes, the Physician's Order continues to have a defining and irreplaceable role.

"To clarify once again regarding the concerns that the Doctor's Order made present in the discussions we had, regarding its independence, I would like to remind you that in the Albanian legislation, as you know very well, there are cases where the Orders work best and independently with much reduced powers than those of the Medical Order, which even after these changes, continues to have a defining and irreplaceable role in every aspect of the regulation of the medical profession", she emphasized .

Excerpt from the statement:

Specifically, these changes consist of establishing clear rules to avoid the conflict of interest of doctors, between the health service they provide in the public system and that in the non-public system.

Meanwhile, it is forbidden for managers of public hospitals of any level to be managers of private health clinics at any level.

These changes will ensure even better quality service to citizens, but also a more intact image for our doctors.

-Also, these amendments aim to establish rules for the dual employment of doctors, defining a necessary and fair balance between work in the public and non-public systems, certainly without infringing any right that doctors have for dual employment.

This has been done to ensure that their priority remains in public services and to improve the quality of these services, without harming patients who need treatment in public structures.

In addition, the new Code of Medical Ethics and Deontology will be approved in order to fully monitor abusive cases and violations of discipline and professional ethics.

Strengthening disciplinary measures up to providing measures such as the suspension and removal of the license to practice the profession of a doctor.

On the other hand, we have guaranteed compliance with administrative and judicial appeal procedures, ensuring justice and transparency in the review of complaints.

Also focus is given to hospital autonomy, through these amendments, doctors who work in a hospital with financial autonomy will not work in private structures, as it will be the autonomous hospital itself that will give them the opportunity to work and use the facilities of the public hospital. outside official hours to work privately.

Through these amendments, we aim to increase Transparency and accountability by creating a public electronic register for doctors practicing in non-public institutions.

The proposed amendments are in line with the best international practices, both of neighboring countries and of more developed countries. In the laws of the neighboring countries of the region such as Bosnia-Herzegovina and Serbia, or of Europe, such as France and Italy, of England, Canada and the USA, there are clear restrictions and regulations regarding the dual employment of doctors.

These proposals put an end to an inherited situation of conflict of interest that widely prevails in the health sector.

They avoid citizens' mistakes, increase quality and standards, and create a clear and transparent mechanism for everyone.

All these are related to a vital and non-negotiable interest for any reason, the provision of health care to citizens.

I have closely followed the debates of recent times and those debates that took place in the Health Commission.

Therefore, I want to point out first that:

In any normal country, there is no debate as to whether it is right to have regulations on working hours.

In no country in the world, there is no debate on the fact that there should be transparency and the citizen should know who is the doctor who treats him.

As in no country, there is a political debate on the need to have clear disciplinary rules and procedures that impose justice in the case of violations or negligence.

On the other hand, in no country in the world is there any discussion as to why these changes are so urgent and necessary to be undertaken so quickly with a Normative Act.

In this hall, unfortunately, the raising of fiery rhetoric whenever we propose important reforms with fundamental changes to improve and further develop our health system has become a common and sometimes monotonous refrain.

However, I want to be as clear and transparent as possible in front of all citizens, as well as in front of the entire class of doctors, to clarify what changes with these amendments.

Therefore, dear MP!

It is in the common interest of all citizens, whether they are left-wing or right-wing, all without exception need health services in the public sector, they need to avoid conflict of interest, to guarantee the highest quality service, to establish rules of clear about dual employment, as well as a regular balance between public and private commitment for doctors.

- Create efficient and transparent procedures for cases of flagrant violations or negligence.

We have followed and adapted our proposals to the best international laws and practices, both of neighboring countries and of more developed countries. Any proposed measure is similar to or consistent with advanced codes that these countries apply.

In order to better understand the importance of clearly establishing the rules, I am listing some facts from the data obtained directly from the Physicians' Order, regarding the disciplinary proceedings developed by them.

According to these data, it clearly results that for the period 2005 - 2023, 632 complaints were administered, which were mostly closed with understanding or confrontation and in most cases did not go through an in-depth assessment under the optics of the provisions of the Code of Ethics and Medical Deontology has provided.

Meanwhile, during the same time period of 18 years, 110 complaints were handled, which went to a disciplinary trial related to violations of the Code of Ethics, ranging from the doctor's lack of ethics to the medical error on his part.

At the end of the review of these 110 disciplinary proceedings, only 60 disciplinary measures, including symbolic ones, were given by the competent body.

So it is clearly understood that for a period of 18 years the number of proceedings has had a very low average, and even lower has been the granting of disciplinary measures.

I definitely want to clarify here that it is not the intention of the Ministry of Health and Social Protection to increase the number of punishments.

We have no interest in artificially increasing the number of cases investigated or referred to Disciplinary Commissions.

Nor should we "scare" the doctors, as was said a few days ago in the Health Commission.

However, we cannot allow ourselves to close our eyes before flagrant cases, especially when negligence endangers life or brings irreversible damage to the citizen./ CNA