2007 REVIEW: HOSPITALS BENEFIT FROM RENOVATION PROGRAM
- In early December when old equipment was being removed from two buildings of a hospital in Ijevan to another building, it was not clear for many what was happening in the medical establishment where things had not changed for decades. The history of the three-building Ijevan hospital begins in the 1960s. And like numerous hospitals in the regions, the medical establishment mostly resembles an old, Soviet, unattended structure.
The walls of the senselessly large hospital, which attends to fewer patents than it is meant for, have lost their coat of plaster, the property is worn out, every ward has more than four beds.
“We have equipment that was produced in the 1970s and the building conditions are so unsatisfactory that most of patients, even without means, go to the capital to get medical aid,” hospital director Hrach Nersisyan says.
To get to Yerevan from Ijevan, which is about 135 kilometers to the north-east of the capital, patients have to take the winding road of Dilijan, a costly trip, however often even in that case they have to go several times to the capital and back in order to achieve a certain result.
“People do not have an opportunity, but they do not have an alternative either and they face a problem. They do not know what to do. They have to go to the capital to get diagnosed, as here in many cases we are not technically able to implement all that,” Nersisyan says.
However, as specialists of the health sphere give assurances, residents of the republic’s provinces will have an “alternative”.
“The program that was launched in November is perhaps the most important and necessary program not only this year, but also for the next few years,” Health Ministry press secretary Ruslana Gevorgyan says. “Due to this program, people in provinces will eventually get an opportunity to get quality and accessible medical aid.”
People in the regions will get an opportunity to get “quality and accessible” medical aid due to the Healthcare System Modernization Program as part of which ten chosen hospitals of the republic’s ten regions will have received quite a different look and facilities until 2012.
“Even the walls of our hospital will not be preserved in certain places, but we are filled with enthusiasm,” Ijevan Hospital Director Hrach Nersisyan says. “Repairs begin and we are very happy to get that honor.”
Throughout the year special groups were touring all regions of the republic to study and analyze all details, taking into consideration the geographical location of hospitals, the flow of patients to a given medical establishment and other important criteria in order to grant “this honor”.
“The new minister appointed in June has paid numerous visits to the regions, which made it possible to get to know the situation on the spot and make decisions, since the chosen hospitals will serve the population of the whole region,” spokeswoman Gevorgyan says. “During recent years reforms were carried out in the health sphere, however this program will drastically change the quality and accessibility of healthcare in the provinces, which was a completely inaccessible thing for local population before.”
Quality and accessible medical aid is expensive.
About $25 million have been allocated for the Health System Modernization Program from the World Bank loan funds, the financing of the program will be implemented through the Armenian government.
About $1.1 million for repairs and $1 million for equipment, wastes management systems and other important investments will be allocated to each hospital, says Health Ministry Programs Implementation Office Director Sergey Khachatryan. “The first hospitals will be put into service in 2008-2009. The hospitals will totally correspond to European standards.”
Everything in the ten hospitals corresponding to European standards will be new – from elevators to chairs and tables. Wards for patients will be convenient, with separate bathrooms, and even the furniture of the wards, TV-sets will be brought into conformity to the local environment.
“In regional hospitals equipment is often several decades old, and due to this program both property and equipment will be upgraded and besides, another program will solve another urgent problem – retraining for doctors,” Gevorgyan says.
Regional doctors will pass special retraining courses to learn the language of modern instrumentation, and the shortage of narrow-profile specialists, which is a constant problem, will be filled through well-paid trips of doctors to regions on special terms. According to Health Minister Harutyun Kushkyan, visiting doctors will spend “no less than six months” on regional missions.
According to the data of the Health Ministry, there is a shortage of more than 300 specialized doctors in the republic today -- the gap that Kushkyan says will be bridged.
“This is also another very urgent problem,” Gevorgyan says. “For example, the hospital in Meghri does not have an anesthesiologist, and they invite the surgeon from the neighboring town of Agarak. Can you imagine how they make surgeries without anesthesia?”
However, according to Gevorgyan, “imagining” has not only a negative tone.
“In recent years and especially in 2007, huge work was done in terms of vaccination, family medicine and in other fields. Numerous problems still remain, however while for several years the state had large debts to medical workers, now we speak about the modernization of ambulance vehicles and introduction of modern equipment.”
According to Gevorgyan, the evidence of what she regards as improvement in the sphere is the growing allocations for the health sector from the state budget.
“Changes in the sphere are evident, approaches also have changed. While in 2001, the spending for the sphere was about 16 billion drams, in 2007 -- 44 billion drams, then next year it will amount to 54 billion drams (about $180 million). An increase of 10 billion drams is not a small one. With that money, for example, unlike this year, polyclinics will be provided with medicines; some 9,000 people more will be able to make use of free medical services, which is also an achievement.”
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- 1600 The meeting of secular and ecclesiastic leaders from Dizak and Varanda provinces of Artsakh starts in Khor Virab Monastery.
- 1863 Anton Jevahirian publishes the "Ser" periodical in Constantinople.
- 1891 Birth of Levon Kalantar, theatrical figure and film director, in Tbilisi (Georgia). In 1921 he founded the Shahoomyan Exploratory Theater in Tbilisi.
- 1928 Birth (in Damascus, Syria) of the French-Armenian writer Vaheh Kachan (Khachatryan).
- 1947 Death of the eminent scholar Stepan Lisitsian. He was born in 1865.
- 1966 Birth of writer, prominent member of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, and statesman Aveteess Aharonyan in Igdeer-Mva (Surmalu region).
- 1975 National Artist and Illusionist, Harootyoon Hakobyan wins the First Prize at an International Competition in Germany.
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