MINISTER SALA BETWEEN INDIFFERENCE AND IRRESPONSIBILITY

2026-03-01 21:47:00, Opinione Erion Dasho

During the week it is difficult to follow every media development in Albania, so I had planned to watch Minister Sala's interview on the "Opinion" show on the weekend.

While the first 30 minutes was a repeat of the podcast that the minister had at the beginning of her tenure with her boss, Borat, the second 30 minutes focused on the minister's duties. During the second part of the interview, several important topics were addressed and the most pressing problems facing the Albanian healthcare system today were highlighted.

Apart from the topic of oncology care, where in previous interviews, I have found that the minister speaks competently, in the other four topics she touched on, she made just as many mistakes, unfortunately, one more serious than the other.

Mistake 1: we are collecting indicators

When asked about the health reform, the minister mentioned a joint work that she has started with the WHO and the World Bank. "We are collecting indicators," said the minister and mentioned bed utilization and length of stay! It took the minister six months to learn these indicators that she should have assessed from her first day in office!!! These are indicators that have been collected since the time of Zog and are reported every year not only within the country, but also to international institutions!

Second mistake: we will change perception

Faced with questions from Mr. Fevziu about the negative public perception of healthcare, the minister replied that she will work to change the perception! In fact, Borat has been doing this for 13 years, who only paints walls and plants flowers, while transferring money to oligarchs! Minister Sala is expected to work to improve the scandalous situation in healthcare and not to change the perception. This is what spin doctors and patronageists of clicks and likes do with "competence"...

Third mistake: let them eat sweets

When confronted with the issue of high drug prices in Albania compared to European Union countries and their low quality, the minister cut her short by responding that "I have not had the opportunity to buy drugs and I do not know the prices". While regarding the low quality of medications, she responded by saying that there is an institution that deals with this issue (subtext: "it is not my job"). A statement that shows the minister as disconnected from daily reality as the French queen Marie Antoinette who suggested that peasants who had no bread should eat sweets.

The last blunder: digital transformation

Here, the minister mentioned interoperability and data exchange as a challenge, indicating that she still remembers herself as a doctor in England, Italy or the USA. These countries truly have the challenge of interoperability, because they have solved digitalization for decades. In the hospitals where Ms. Sala heads, the cards are still written by hand, while the electronic card program, which has been in implementation for five years, has not yet been implemented in any hospital.

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Minister Sala's next appearance in the media showed once again that she continues to wander between utopian desires and ignorance of the reality in which her childhood friend (this is how she referred to Borat during the conversation) has ruined the Albanian healthcare system, along with her Beqe of concessions, Ogerta of secret tenders, and the clarinetists and ballerinas who led the healthcare institutions in these 13 years.

Ms. Sala herself has not yet understood that the knowledge of the situation for a minister is completed within the first weeks in office and it is not expected that six months will pass to learn how many days of stay and bed turnover are!!!

Likewise, the minister must understand that she has political responsibility for what happens in the Albanian healthcare system, and this responsibility also includes the institutions of dependency, including the parking lot of the QSUT that Blendi Fevziu mentioned, and the work that the Drug Control Center must do to guarantee Albanians quality and safe medications.

Albanians expect accountability and commitment from their minister, not empty words and empty promises!

As they have heard quite a bit during her first months in office...