The plan of SHSKUK to reduce services in regional hospitals is challenged in the Constitution

Article 11 of the new statute of the University Clinical Hospital Service foresees that regional public hospitals have five basic services - Surgery, Internal Medicine, Pediatrics, Gynecology and Emergency. This means that other services may leave these hospitals. The People's Advocate, based on the complaints he has received, has asked the Constitutional Court to interpret whether this change violates the rights of patients

The reorganization of the University Clinical Hospital Service (SHSKUK) will be challenged in the Constitutional Court, since the first two levels of the judiciary have suspended the implementation of its new statute, while after many complaints, the People's Advocate has sent it for constitutionality evaluation in the Constitutional Court.

The new statute of SHSKUK determines that regional hospitals in Kosovo may not have all health profiles, but only the necessary ones, such as General Surgery, Internal Medicine, Pediatrics, Gynecology, Obstetrics and Emergency.

This means that hospitals are at risk of having many other services cut off. The Health Trade Union Federation and the psychiatrists of the general hospitals of Gjilan, Prizren, Gjakova and Peja have complained that the new statute will reduce services in these hospitals. 

The People's Advocate has asked the Constitutional Court to interpret whether such changes are in line with the basic principles of the Constitution, such as equality before the law, health and social protection, as well as with the article on the limitation of fundamental rights.

The People's Advocate has taken as a basis the complaints of psychiatrists and has considered that the centralization of services related to mental health violates human rights.

"The People's Advocate emphasizes that the definition of Article 11, in the disputed act, is an indication that health services are not defined in the same spirit as in the Law on Health. The People's Advocate considers that the removal of some types of health services, in general hospitals, puts citizens, in whose areas general hospitals are located, at unequal disposal. In other words, the citizens of the areas where the general hospitals are located are denied access to health services, which consequently produces a situation of inequality in terms of the use and access to health services", says the announcement of the People's Advocate.

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The Constitutional Court has asked for a temporary measure so that this reorganization, which is provided for by the statute of SHSKUK, does not begin to be implemented before the decision on its legality.

Several times in the meeting of the current board of SHSKUK, the performance of general hospitals has been discussed. Some of the internal reports of this institution show a low level of utilization of regional hospital beds. According to these reports, some services from the institution itself have been shown to be not cost-effective in relation to the number of citizens who provide services.

KOHA has sent questions about this issue to SHSKUK but has not received an answer.