Press Release, 19.03.2021

Photo by depositphotos/alexraths

More than 31 million roubles will be allocated to private nursing homes for the elderly in the Republic of Karelia. Deputies of the Yabloko faction in the Legislative Assembly of Karelia, Emilia Slabunova and Ivan Gusev, managed to make the parliament of the Republic of Karelia allocate to the nursing homes for the elderly the subsidies envisaged for them by law as partial compensation of their costs for the provision of their social services in 2021. On 18 March, deputies of the parliament of Karelia adopted amendments to the regional budget, the amendments provide for the allocation of the required funds.

Emilia Slabunova recalled that the authorities of Karelia, without explaining the reasons, did not include the funds to reimburse private firms providing social services in the budget for 2021.

“Corresponding compensations are envisaged, because according to the law, one can not take more than 75 per cent of the pension from pensioners living in nursing homes for their accommodation. People with small pensions also live in nursing homes, some have neither relatives, nor their own homes, many are with serious illnesses. The state covers the difference to the established standard. Elderly people who find themselves in a similar situation have the right granted to them by law to receive assistance under an individual social services programme,” Emilia Slabunova said.

“If they have such a programme on hand, they have the right to choose any institution to receive assistance, both state and non-state, which is registered in the register of service providers. If there are places, the institution has no right to refuse them and is obliged to conclude a contract with them,” the deputy added.

The Yabloko faction stressed that officials answered vaguely to the questions of the parliamentarians from Yabloko, that all guests of private nursing homes would be sent to state institutions. At the same time, they pretended that they forgot about the law guaranteeing people the right to choose an institution, as well as the fact that there are 81 people on the waiting list only for the Petrozavodsk nursing home for veterans (some pensioner are in the waiting list since the summer of 2018). Those living in private nursing homes do not want to move anywhere – they like the conditions, they have developed relationships and a circle of friends, their right to choose a nursing home is protected by law.

It should be noted that a private nursing home turned to Emilia Slabunova for help. For several years the nursing home had been receiving a subsidy from the republican budget to reimburse the costs of supporting the elderly as a provider of social services included in the register,  however, no funds were allocated for 2021. Emilia Slabunova raised the issue of reimbursement of expenses for the provision of services for veterans on the agenda of the Committee on Healthcare and Social Policy of the Legislative Assembly of the Republic of Karelia.

According to independent estimates, more than 500 people can be in the waiting list to the state-owned nursing homes for the elderly. However, according to the official information provided by the Ministry of Social Protection of Karelia, 135 people are on the waiting list as of January 1, 2021.