Fixed Fare / Hemodialysis patients the route goes 3-fold reimbursement. Public transport is missing.

Xhevat Cullhaj from the village of Stërbeg in Spille complained to Fiks Fare, who performs hemodialysis three times a week at the Durrës hospital. He is reimbursed by the state for transport with 320 lekë per day while he spends 800-1000 lekë per day, every time he goes to Durrës. He claims for Fiks that the refund of 4000 ALL given by the state, is 1/3 of what he has to take out of his pocket in a month. For 13 times that he has to appear to perform dialysis in Durrës, the gentleman spends only for transportation about 12,000 ALL per month.

Fiks Fare saw up close what a day Mr. Cullhaj when he shows up to perform dialysis.

His vicissitudes are endless, along the way he changes the means of transport 3 times due to the lack of public transport from the village to Durrës. The day begins to express as at 06:00 he has to leave the house. The private van coming to his village leaves at 07:00. He says that he usually pays 200 lekë for the ticket, but the day he accompanied the journalists he paid 150 lekë to the village near Harizaj. After that at 08:00 he has to catch the other van departing from Harizaj to Plepa. Here too the ticket costs 150 lek. Then he goes to the terminal to take the bus to which he pays 0 lekë because he has a disability card, which as he says “and this with lekë is that I pay 700 lekë that I take out per year, plus 2 photos that are needed 200 lekë ”.

So just to go to the hospital the hemodialysis patient spends full 300 lek, what about the return ?! At 10:00 Mr. Xhevat arrives at the hospital and has dialysis at 12:30, he has to wait outside or where he can until his time comes. When the dialysis ends, the time is 16:30 and in those conditions he walks to the bus station as he has to catch it at 17:05. But the real ordeal for these patients begins here. After descending from the public city in Plepa, they wait on the road in the rain and cold, or in the summer in great heat to find a means of transport to return.

“Often times after dialysis, my blood pressure dropped and people found me on the street, but after dialysis you have no power and we have to wait for hours until we find transport,” said Xhevati. Along with her is another lady who has been on dialysis for three months, unlike Xhevat, who is in her eighth year. Both show the sufferings of returning home that catch the late hours on the streets and are forced to pay even large sums of money just to not be left on the streets. The two together wait a full 1:30 minutes raising their hand to every possible car to pick them up. Finally after 1:30 minutes someone stops and takes them to Harizaj, the village next to 300 lek. There he waits another two hours until another random car comes out to take him to his village.

Around 21:20 Xhevati arrives in front of his house, the last payment from Harizaj to Stërbeg cost him 200 lekë, so in total the return is 500 lekë. While the round trip transport 800 lekë, while the state reimburses only 320 lekë per day. Tired of the vicissitudes of the road and of the disease itself he thanks Fiks who became his voice and has a request that three sick like him in the area where he resides be made available a car. The refund of 4000 ALL per month that they receive for the transport to give to the driver, or if it is not possible at least to review the refund.

Fiks Fare is also interested in Kavaja Hospital, in the branch of finance which deals with the calculation of distances in kilometers and based on it comes the reimbursement for each patient. In this office the journalists were informed that the order issued by the Ministry of Health in 2015 was in force which they also implemented. The order states that the hospital directorate must reimburse patients who perform hemodialysis according to public transport tariffs, but from 2015 to 2022 prices have changed but the order applies the same. The Chief of Finance Mimoza Vogli herself, although young in this position, promised to send a request to the ministry to make possible the review of the reimbursement, why not to make available a tool for these patients.

While this hospital has only one ambulance which transports all patients from Kavaja and villages.

Fiks Fare also addressed the Municipality of Rrogozhina for this problem, as it covers public transport in the villages of Spille. This municipality in its response clarifies that public transport is performed individually by persons who are ill, who use the village line. According to the municipality, no transport company has applied to cover public transport from the village of Stërbeg.

The line used by the inhabitants of the area and the surrounding villages is the line Rrogozhinë-Kryeluzaj and the set time is 06:00 before day and after day 16:00.

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