Author(s): Ermir Shahini, Eugen Skuraj, Fatbardh Sallaku, Shpend Shahini, Fabiola Bali, Elti Shahini
This paper aims to identify the correlation between the Covid-19 pandemic and the ability of the health care systems to restructure to combat the pandemic. There is inadequate information on the relationship between the two variables in the current literature review, making the primary data essential in carrying out the study. In this study, the researcher used a correlation research design to establish the cause-effect relationship between the two variables: Covid-19 and its effect on restructuring the health care systems economy in the Western Balkan area. An increase in the shortage of medical equipment has reduced the health care systems' ability to restructure for the pandemic. The study also found out that the health care facilities in the Western Balkan experienced a widespread shortage of ventilators and ICU beds, making it a significant challenge to contain the virus. Increased unpreparedness led to a decrease in health care systems' ability to restructure. The fallout of Covid-19 has impacted almost every facet of the healthcare economies in the Western Balkan region. The study found that the lack of preparedness was the main contributor to the struggles experienced in the region's healthcare facilities. There was a lack of preparedness on the part of the health care system in the Western Balkan because the medical response to the corona pandemic imposed a staggering cost on the local health care systems. That left many people from the area to struggle with the demand spikes on their limited resources, making it hard for the health care institutions to survive the pandemic effects. In the region, like in other areas worldwide, the health care sectors are designed to tackle more than the average demand for health care services in common diseases. However, for the Covid-19 pandemic, the story is different as it requires extra resources. In most cases, the highly exorbitant investment may not make sense to most health care systems because such a magnitude of pandemic rarely occurs, making many consider investing such resources to other sectors of the economy.