Pustec is perhaps the only town in Albania where there are no pharmacies. Massive migration of the population has rendered businesses uninterested in investing in the area. If sick and in need of medications, the residents have no other choice but travel to Korça to get them.

There are more than 3,000 residents living in this municipality. They tell Euronews Albania that unless they can travel to the nearest town, they order medications to family members living in Greece or North Macedonia.

“There are no pharmacies here, none. Doctors bring them in from Korça,” says an old lady.

“It’s hard but there is nothing we can do. If you get the flu, you have to go to Korça. It’s been like this for a very long time,” says another resident.

“The doctor brings my medicine. Of course, it is hard. If I get sick, I have no other choice but go to Korça,” says another lady.

The mayor of Pustec, Pali Kolefski tells Euronews Albania he has been in negotiations with private companies, but most of them hesitate to invest.

“I have spoken to some companies. It is the remoteness of the area that keeps them from investing, they make their own calculations. I have taken it upon myself to symbolically rent a part of the premise where the new municipality will be built, to anyone who is interested in offering this service.”

According to residents, the pharmacy that once existed in this administrative unit before it became a municipality, was closed shorty after the ‘90s and since then, the residents of the area have not had direct access to a pharmacy, in cases of illnesses.