The leaders of YABLOKO and the Russian Medical Association
(RMA) signed today a Memorandum on state policies in healthcare
and a healthcare reform.
“The positions, approaches and the concept of the healthcare
reform proposed by the RMA completely coincide with YABLOKO’s
approach,” Sergei Mitrokhin said opening the press-conference.
According to Mitrokhin, the party will reinforce its programme
in the part of healthcare measures and will get a possibility
to work with Russia’s medical community.
“Our common task is not only formulate a concept of a healthcare
reform and translate medical and research tasks into a political
language, but also to protect doctors and patients,” added
Galina Mikhalyova, Executive Secretary of YABLOKO’s Political
Committee.
“The slogan of our party has been “Freedom and Justice”,
Mitrokhin reiterated. “However, the main drawback of the
present healthcare system is the lack of both of them. And
YABLOKO and the Russian Medical Association completely agree
in their vision of this problem,” he said.
Mitrokhin also added that both doctors and patients are
at present in a kind of slavery from medical institutions:
doctors can not realise their talents, while patients are
doomed to receiving a primitive set of services without
any quality control. However, doctors can not receive a
“worthy legal remuneration” and a high social status. “Social
differentiation splits the population as of healthcare and
quality of life patterns in Russia: rich people are healthier
and live longer than poor people,” Mitrokhin said.
Ashot Sarkisyan, President of the RMA, agreed with YABLOKO’s
leader. “Everywhere in the world they judge of the correctness
of the way of development of healthcare by means of weighing
up whether it will improve the positions of doctors and
patients,” he said. According to Sarkisyan, the RMA had
had a negative experience of a dialogue with the authorities,
that had turned down all the proposals of the professional
community, therefore the RMA decided to bring their proposals
via a political party.
Gennady Krivosheyev, RMA vice President, also noted that
there had been only random attempts to reform Russia’s healthcare.
Also for the past 50 years the fixed assets in the sector
had been depreciating, and the quality of medical services
had been falling.
Krivosheyev also drew the attention of the public to the
problem of “lumpenisation of the medical workers”.
At the end of press-conference YABLOKO’s leader Sergei
Mitrokhin and RMA President Ashot Sarkisyan signed the Memorandum.
The document had been approved by YABLOKO’s Political Committee
and fixed that intention of the parties to cooperate in
development of a new concept of the healthcare reform, determination
of its priorities and protection of the interests of the
medical workers and the patients.
See also:
Healthcare
reform
