The draft law on health is criticized, because of the delay there is no hope that it will pass the Assembly

The draft law on Health, which is currently in preliminary consultations, is being opposed by the Chambers of health professionals, while its implementation during this legislature is considered an impossible process due to delays in its drafting.

The Minister of Health, Arben Vitia, said that currently the draft law is in preliminary consultations, which will then pave the way for the proceedings in the Assembly.

"The Law on Health is already in preliminary consultations, it will continue with public discussions and as soon as all these administrative procedures are completed, it will go to the Government and then it will be processed in the Assembly of Kosovo," Vitia said.

However, the draft of this important draft law for Kosovar health is being opposed by the Chambers of health professionals on the grounds that it is trying to take away their powers.

The President of the Chamber of Physiotherapists of Kosovo, Feim Gashi, said that they are not at all satisfied with the current draft.

Emphasizing that they do not know who drafted this draft, Gashi said that they requested access to official documents to understand who drafted the draft law on health, as they were never invited.

According to Gashi, the current draft law should not be passed as it has many objections.

"Within this draft, we as Chambers of Health Professionals are absolutely not satisfied because there are comments from our side that initially the competences of the Chambers of Health Professionals are taken, but it does not even have the role of an association, associations are more valued in this draft law is proposed by the ministry...the competences of licensing, re-licensing are taken, the competences of continuous education of health professionals for all wards are taken...On the basis of this draft, these competences are transferred to the Ministry of Health", he said. Gashi said.

The delays in the drafting of the draft law on Health by the opposition parties are considered unjustifiable. In fact, they do not believe that this bill will come to the Assembly during the eighth legislature. PDK MP Bekim Haxhiu is pessimistic about the progress of this bill.

"It took the government 4 years to design a very weak law that does not meet the needs of citizens and health, I hope that during the public discussion it will be changed even though this draft law was already on the legislative agenda for 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024 and still not has come to the Assembly, there are two and a half months left of the Assembly and I do not believe at all that this draft law will be passed in this legislature.

It is an extremely weak bill, vaguely written where articles within that bill contradict each other, paragraphs within an article contradict each other there is an attempt by the Ministry of Health to take powers away from the Chambers of Health Professionals ", says deputy Haxhiu.

Even the deputy of the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo, Shemsedin Dreshaj, considers the fact that the draft law on Health has not yet come up for discussion in the Assembly as unjustifiable.

"It is really an illusion to expect such a great efficiency.... I think that this law has been needed since the beginning of taking office when we talk about September 2021 when it was on the legislative agenda to come to the Assembly, it is unjustifiable that this law is still not elaborated and operationalized", Dreshaj said.

The health journalist, Bujar Vitia, underlines that the draft law on Health was supposed to lead to the legislative reform in health.

"The law on health is the main one in terms of health in Kosovo and I consider that it was the main basis for the reform in health legislation. The draft presented by the Ministry of Health in the internal discussions is delayed for several reasons, because many by-laws and other laws, as I said, preceded this draft of the health law, which should have been the opposite". he said.

The law on health was voted for the first time in the Assembly in 2013. /KP/