KKUK with IVF department. The service is offered to single women and couples who want children through donors

The Clinic of Gynecology at KKUK has been renovated, within which the Department for Assisted Fertilization has also been established. The new service will launch in August, but it will not be offered to single women and couples who want children through donors. Prime Minister Kurti refused to answer when he intends to pass the law on Assisted Fertilization in the Assembly, which many deputies of Vetëvendosje are against

Government officials, including Prime Minister Albin Kurti, have chosen not to talk about blocking the Assisted Fertilization law, the day they promoted the renovation of the Gynecology Clinic in Pristina.

The investment worth about 5.5 million euros also includes the space for two newly established wards, that of Medical Assisted Fertilization (IVF) and the Fetal Medicine ward.
Prime Minister Kurti praised the work done.

"There used to be seven or eight women in one room, while the toilet was at one end of the common corridor, now there are only two beds in each room and each room has a sanitary unit and a bathroom. The cleanliness is maximum, the air quality is high, the lighting is pleasant and the dedication of the doctors and nurses is maximum", he said.

The Prime Minister did not accept questions from journalists, including the question about the failure to pass the law on IVF in the Assembly, which is opposed by a part of the deputies of the party he leads - Vetëvendosje.
And with the start of providing new services in this ward, there will be selections.
In KKUK, only the homologous IVF service will be started, which means that women without partners and couples who want children through donors will not be able to perform this procedure in the public system.

IVF will only be for couples who have their own cells, but pregnancy cannot be achieved in the normal way.

Since 2016, when the Misdemeanor Law entered into force in Kosovo, violations found in some of the health services are not sanctioned. After the changes in it, it has been determined that the fine cannot be imposed on any institution if the law does not provide for it.

For Assisted Fertilization there is only Administrative Instruction. And, in the absence of the law, private hospitals are exempted from punishment for any violation, as well as the new ward within Gynecology, which was inaugurated on Tuesday.

Currently, this service is provided only in the private sector. However, it is only regulated by an Administrative Instruction, which makes the aforementioned sanctions inapplicable.

In the answer given by the MOH a week ago, it is said that the reason why this area should be regulated by law and not by administrative instruction, lies precisely in the fact that currently no sanctions are foreseen.

"This area has been necessary to be regulated by law because, based on the Law on Misdemeanors (year 2016), the sanctions for misdemeanors cannot be imposed with UA", says the response of the Ministry of Health. 

The fact that it is impossible to impose fines for violations for services that are regulated by Administrative Instruction is evidenced by a judgment of the Basic Court in Pristina regarding inspections in some private gynecological hospitals. 

The decision mentioned by the Ministry concluded that there is no sufficient legal basis for such fines. The court referred only to the Law on Health, which in principle regulates the functioning of health institutions, but there are no unprecedented fines, especially for violations in the Assisted Fertilization process. 

"In this context, the court came to the conclusion that no provision of any sub-legal act, and in this case the legal provisions in UA 06/2016 on Medically Assisted Fertility, cannot be in conflict with the Law on Health as a higher act in the legal hierarchy and which in this case, through article 96, paragraph 1, of the Law on Health, foresees the punishment with a fine from two thousand to eight thousand euros", says the decision of the Basic Court in Pristina.

Minister Vitia has not shown how this issue will be addressed, but has said that from the beginning of August, the IVF process will begin in public.

"All will be ready at the end of July, beginning of August and I believe with the increased interest of couples in the Republic of Kosovo to do this procedure and because this procedure costs a lot in the private sector, I am very for sure that at the beginning of August we will immediately have interest and we will have the first couple and then the other couples who will carry out this procedure", stated Vitia on Tuesday.

Currently, there are no sanctions in the Law on Health for the violations that a private hospital can make regarding reproductive health.