Some doctors in Armenia either examine pregnant women too much or prescribe too much medicine for them or don’t give the correct amount of necessary medicine. Oleg Shvabsky, an adviser to the World Health Organization (WHO), said that during a conversation with www.aravot.am.
WHO specialists have conducted an examination among the leading doctors of a few communities to find out what situation there is in our polyclinics, particularly about the services provided to pregnant women. In response to a question of www.aravot.am what serious problems they had noticed, and what reforms the Armenian government should carry out in that field in the first place, Mr. Shvabsky said: “First of all, we just offer – Armenia is an independent country, it decides whether it will follow our advice or not. The first problem revealed in polyclinics is hyper diagnostics, i.e. they prescribe too much examination, conduct a few ultrasonic examinations, which, according to the WHO, should be conducted only once. They prescribe too much medicine, moreover, medicines the effectiveness of which is not proven.”
In response to our question whether he had cleared up why such medicines were prescribed, the WHO specialist said: “Because they have been taught so.”
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In response to our observation that pharmaceutical companies lobbied in a way that included also, so to say, paying doctors to sell their drugs, to prescribe their medicine, Mr. Shvabsky said, “The pharmaceutical lobby is common around the world. But the situation in Armenia is better.”
WHO specialists are discussing the results of the WHO examination with Armenian specialists in the American University today – they also discuss what should be done as a result of reforms in the system of polyclinics and referrals to reduce mother and infant disease and mortality rate.
Mr. Shvabsky also stated during a conversation with us that some medicine was prescribed incorrectly and in incorrect doses, however, generally, medical service was available for the public. The specialist also offered to entrust family doctors with supervision over pregnancy. As for whether family doctors were ready for that, Karine Saribekyan, the head of the mother and infant health protection department, Ministry of Healthcare, said during a conversation with us that family doctors were not yet ready for that, but there were certain communities where they did that very well.
Nelly BABAYAN
