During the past year, about 13.072 citizens got medical treatment, 11.500 out of which got treatment by the free programs supported by the government. The number of patients that got treatments out of the hospital was 323000. The number of registered births in 2005 is 1952.
The sanitary conditions were good in Armenia and the corresponding bodies worked in a duly manner. According to the information of hospitals that send doctors to patients at home, they registered about 90 cases of tuberculosis when there were 52-56 cases in the previous years. “Of course this number worries us, but this is mainly due to what we have discovered recently. The Karabagh army has been provided with four complexes of the corresponding facilities and they have conducted some examinations in Karabakh, especially in the cities of Stepanakert and Martakert. And of course after such numerous examinations they had to register an increased number. We are sure that this number will go down after this phase. Thanks to the help of our sponsors from New York we are going to have a new mobile photofluorographic unit and we will be able to examine all citizens”, said the minister of health care during our conversation.
As we know a new hospital building is being built in Stepanakert now. Although the constructions had to be finished according to the plan, however it is still going on. This hospital is built by philanthropists too. We asked the minister of health care of Karabakh, Zoya Lazaryan why the building is taking so long to finish: “The exploitation will be later on due to some reasons, but since the sponsoring organization is the “Hayastan” All-Armenia Fund’s New York branch, we can’t interfere in their work. I hope they will be able to finish the construction by summer and we will be able to open the hospital”, said the minister.
It has already been three years that the “Aidan Hayastanin” organization is reconstructing the building of the children’s hospital. They have done a huge job: the building has local heating and well equipped rooms. The only problem is the furniture in one floor. With the purpose of furnishing the other floor they expect the support from other philanthropic organizations. After finishing the reconstruction work in this building they will start reconstructing the other part of the building.
This year we are expecting news regarding out-patient treatments and free medicines. It turns out that out-patient treatment will be provided for free as it is done in Armenia: “Everyone that visits hospitals should be informed that consultations are free. But in addition they must know that this is done for free only if the patient has been assigned by the quarter-municipality doctor”, said the minister.
We know that there are problems with health care in village communities: either there are no medical clinics or if there are, they don’t work in a duly manner. We talked to some citizens and it turned out that doctors visit village communities a couple of times a week and there is a lack of medicine.
The minister confessed that the lack of medical clinics in village communities is their biggest problem. Due to some problems citizens of village communities are not able to get treatment and sometimes they have to go to the city to get treatment. According to Z.Lazaryan there are only several villages that have doctors and good treatment at home. But every year they form groups consisting of different medical specialists to visit village communities and examine citizens.
This year for the first time the budget provided money for the field to serve village communities separately. Besides that they are going to have such groups visit village communities twice a year. There will be a timeline for each village community so citizens will know when there will be visits beforehand.