VIDEO/ Residents of Vau i Dejës protest after the deaths of two citizens: They demand better healthcare services

Residents of Vau i Dejës have taken to the streets in protest, calling for improved healthcare services in the area. The protest is taking place near the Vau i Dejës Hospital and follows the deaths of David Deda and Sokol Preka, who lost their lives after coming into contact with electricity in the village of Karmë.

Citizens say they are concerned about the state of healthcare services in the area and are calling on the responsible institutions to take measures to improve them. Residents are demanding greater attention and guarantees for the provision of healthcare, particularly in emergencies, raising concerns about how such situations are handled in the area.

One protester said that the city, with around 50,000 residents, has been left without emergency services at night, while on-call doctors have been removed for around two months.

“This protest is in memory of the two young men from Vau i Dejës, following the great tragedy that occurred, due to the absence of the state, the lack of ambulances, nurses, doctors and everyone else. This health center has been turned—meaning they removed everything—and has become a center where we have neither emergency services nor an ambulance. This city has had no ambulance at all for three months. We are 50,000 residents, more than 50,000 residents, and we do not have a single ambulance. We have no emergency service, no doctors’ service, we have no doctors at all. Doctors provide services only in the mornings, and there are no doctors at all. This is the absence of the state, the absence of the institutions, the Shkodër directorate and all the others. Because there was no ambulance, it took an ambulance an hour and a half to come from Shkodër, after Shkodër was notified and sent an ambulance to the scene.

Because of the lack of an ambulance, the young men also died, among other things. One person calls Shkodër, another calls Shkodër—this is the state’s great failure. We are demanding that the Vau i Dejës health center be turned into an emergency center. Doctors must provide service 24 hours a day. There must be additional services, ambulances and emergency care; it is clear what services are needed, since it has its own doctors. We are asking the state, the institutions, everyone, to turn this into an emergency healthcare center. We, the residents of Vau i Dejës, come here, and there are only nurses. There is no doctor. Only the nurses provide service here. There is no doctor; the doctor is here only in the morning. There is no doctor because there used to be an on-call night doctor, but about a month and a half or two months ago they removed them. They had on-call doctors, they removed them, and this entire service here has been abolished. We are left only with nurses. What can a nurse help with, what can she do? This is our problem,” the citizen said.