The Armenian government has provided 39.1 billion AMD for the health sector for 2006, which exceeds last year’s amount by 7 billion. In fact, the 14 billion 300 million from that (nearly 35%) is aimed towards financing the ambulatory polyclinics.
The Minister of Health of Armenia hoped that the money aimed towards helping the people would reduce the risks of corruption and one of the ways of fighting against corruption is the increase in salaries. The salaries of the first aid doctors have already gone up by 50-100% and as head of the Health and Social Security department of the Yerevan municipality Armen Soghoyan says, there is a tendency to increase the salaries even more next year, which serves as a firm basis for the ministry to demand more from doctors.
During a year-end press conference, when the Minister of Health Norair Davidyan claimed that treatments would be free of charge for all levels of society starting from January 1st of this year, he emphasized that “it’s free of charge on the account of the state and not the doctors”. Judging from the “moaning and groaning” working style of the doctors providing free treatment to citizens, we can assume that they are not only unhappy with the standard of salary increase, but also the state orders.
Judging from the official social, health and demographic marks, (for example, we have 129,000 families receiving subsidies, 524,000 receiving pensions, elderly citizens and the rise in illnesses each year), it’s not surprising that the news about treatments free of charge was going to interest many. The frequent visits of citizens and the long lines at the polyclinics are proof of this. According to A. Soghoyan, the annual studies conducted by the joint committee of the Health Ministry show that the number of patients is on the rise- there is a 40-50% rise each month. In regard to the increase in citizens, one of the surgeons at the No. 119 local polyclinic said that “they already come with families”.
During an interview, Armen Soghoyan said that journalists only intend on finding bad points and try to fix things up, meanwhile monitoring shows that citizens are rather pleased with the service at the clinics. Soghoyan also mentioned that they need facts to prove that there have been violations in the state program. For example, if your local therapist has given you a pass to go through an ultrasound examination, then you may find out after the examination that you are in perfect condition despite the fact that you have complaints. As a result of an ultrasound examination at the No. 3 municipal hospital, the citizen registered at the No. 6 local polyclinic (who decided to remain anonymous based on personal reasons) found out that the results of his local doctor are not the real thing because he had discovered other illnesses at the same time (fortunately not fatal). In response to our question as to why the results of the free of charge examination (guaranteed by the state) have been suspected, the citizen replied that the specialists have recommended him to “pay 2000 AMD so that the doctor could examine him better”. Of course, the citizen decided to pay his trusted doctor. The same thing happened to a young lady who went to get examined by a gynecologist at the No. 19 polyclinic. After the examination, she no longer trusts the quality of free of charge examinations. According to specialists, the wrong diagnosis as a result of the ultrasound examinations may be due to the antiquated technical equipment (in that case, why are they even being used?), or the lack of professionalism of doctors or some errors. According to head of the health and social security department of the municipality, the technical equipment at the polyclinics is not in good condition, especially since they have recently been used frequently. Soghoyan says that some polyclinics will receive new equipment soon on the expenses of the municipality. He also mentions that the local clinics always need laboratory equipment.
After waiting for three hours at the No.6 polyclinic with her two-year old daughter, Araxya Harutyunyan was informed from the laboratory doctors that they don’t have the necessary vial and the tubes and they asked her to find them. A. Harutyunyan wasn’t able to get the necessary equipment from the nearby drug stores and she went back home in despair. She has decided to never get free of charge treatment. According to her, the inhospitality of the doctors shows that they expect you to pay them. This is just one of the cases.
Most of the people we surveyed are of the opinion that the articles published in the press and the fourth power can’t do anything to change the system because it’s controlled from “higher” ground. However, they were afraid that if the article gets published, then some average doctor may lose his job. Although some may feel safe because they know that they can’t get punished, however a doctor is responsible for the citizen’s health and any mistake made can be fatal for the citizen.
Although the government has its strategies to reduce poverty, it hasn’t really done anything positive for the people-the reforms are only temporary. The citizens of Armenia will come up with anything to earn extra money to live the lives they want to live, circumvent the governmental resolutions and norms, come up with new strategic methods. This just goes to show you how ineffective the control of the governmental substructures is.
NAIRA MARTIROSYAN
P.S. As I was finishing up my article, coincidently I saw public television broadcasting a program called “Health” discussing the topic of the free of charge treatments guaranteed by the state at the ambulatory polyclinics. Judging from the tapings at the polyclinics showing the committees, which are controlled by the state bodies, it became clear that the citizens are pleased with the quality of treatments. The host even mentioned that the citizens thanked the television staff during the tapings.
It’s amazing that only the satisfied citizens appeared on television.
Fighting against unemployment
Based on evaluations, unemployment rates exceed the official rates by 33%. The level of youth unemployment ranges from 28-29% during the past couple of years. (The actual rate is much higher).
Studies show that the developing and long-term unemployment (79.2% of the registered are long-term unemployed) leads to delinquencies-prostitution, drug addiction and the rise in suicide. For example, the number of suicides in 2002 rose by 23.3% compared to the year before that, while youth committed 41.1% of crimes. The high unemployment rates are also the reason for immigration. Youth made up 60% of immigrants in 2002. According to experts, the future for undergraduates is also a problem-more than 1/5 of them are unemployed. In 2004, the number of students studying in the 20 state and 68 non-state universities was 12,214 of which only 9,000 were students from the state university. Armenia can be compared to countries like Austria or Australia with its number of undergraduates (29-30%). But as specialists say, that’s not a high number. It is big though if we look at it from the unemployment perspective.
Recently, the Armenian branch of the UN Development Program and the Ministry of Education and Sciences of Armenia initialized a program entitled “Approaches for development of state policy on professional education” and the proposals have been made to the government. Program director and candidate of philosophic sciences Hovhannes Hovhannisyan says that studies have shown what attracts young professionals to get involved in the fields. Based on a survey, approximately 5% of the 1200 undergraduates from 27 universities have found jobs thanks to employment agencies, 44.1% of students have reached success with their own initiatives, while 38.7% of students have found jobs with the help of friends and relatives.
H. Hovhannisyan states that they have proposed creating career development centers in the universities to further enhance the contacts between the university and the employers. According to him, this has already been established with success at the American University of Armenia. One of the solutions proposed is connecting employers with universities. With the decision made by the government back in September (when administration boards were formed with the participation of employers), this mechanism can function, but according to the specialist, it will be effective if those structures penetrate into the university. One of the proposals made within the framework of the UN Development Program is instilling the idea of crediting in the educational system.
“Crediting is the best planned-out mechanism, which will not only help fight against poverty and the deepening of social issues, but also stop the tendency of turning some professions into a monopoly,” says H. Hovhannisyan. Eight-ten million dollars will be needed to finance the crediting program, which will improve the educational system by 50%.
Based on official statistics, 229 Armenian citizens were looking for one vacant job position back in 2004. This number exceeds that of the other CIS countries by 20 times. The analysis on the demand for jobs in Armenia compared to other CIS countries shows that the working potential registered at employment agencies is considerably lower than that of other countries. As of January 1, 2006, only 8500 of the 21,000 citizens registered at the “State Employment Agency” have found jobs (this makes up 30% of the citizens who have found jobs with help from the state), which is 5.6% higher than last year. The employment agencies haven’t been licensed since 2000. One of the reasons for this flaw is perhaps because the agencies haven’t provided information about employment. According to head of the “State Employment Agency” Sona Harutyunyan, this is a major problem because the same organizations are also working on sending the working potential out of the country without any interstate contract. Mrs. Harutyunyan also touched upon the job announcements seen on television and stated that employers don’t go along with the norms as stated on television.
Head of the Work/Employment department of the Ministry of Labor and Social Issues vahan Simonyan also complains about the norms stated in the job announcements. He mentioned the fact that the ministry has to regulate this by installing a tariff-crediting system and strengthen other national institutes. The head of the department also said that the ministry will soon present the working hours and the resolution for vacations for the workers in the fields of medicine, transportation, communications and education. Based on the resolution, for example, taxi drivers working around the clock will have certain working hours and the client will then be forced to pay an extra 50% to the driver for working during rest hours. The job announcements by foreign organizations in the field of network marketing seen on television are not few in number. According to specialists, the presence of these job announcements can actually start a competition.
Based on what the specialists at the “Chance” employment agency say, their job announcements are for seasonal jobs. The demand for trade and service jobs goes up during the summer. Office work makes up 40%.
As for the companies involved in network marketing, the worker said that their agency doesn’t work with them because this field is not developing in Armenia anymore. Fifty-year old Sofa Sargsyan, who is the manager of the “Vision International People Group” international organization, tends to differ in opinion. It has already been seven years since she “exchanged” her 27 year experience in law with network marketing and says that two out of ten people get involved in their network. According to her, network marketing is on the rise and this is the business which brings in 50% of the profit of developed countries like the U.S. and Japan.