Yesterday, during a question-and-answer session with the government in the National Assembly, Armenuhi Kyureghyan, a member of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation faction, addressed a question to Health Minister Arsen Torosyan. There are many cases when a patient already has the results of the radiation diagnostic, and applies to a specific specialist but the specialist starts the process of sending the patient to different specialists. In many cases, as a result of this process, the patient’s relatives lose a lot of money and time needed for treatment, and often suffer great losses, sometimes, unfortunately, even the patient’s life”. Then the MP inquired of the Minister whether there are plans to suppress this phenomenon existing in the sphere of health care.
In response to the MP’s question, Minister Arsen Torosyan assured that before becoming Minister he was already well-acquainted with the problem: “We cannot deny that there is such a phenomenon, especially in case of a radiological diagnosis. First of all it is definitely illegal process. I probably will cooperate with law enforcement bodies to solve the issue. But we have to understand that the problem is also in the compensation field of health care providers. Often doctors expect extra money as well, because their basic salary is very low, for the work they do”.
The minister said that this problem can be solved by raising the salaries by introducing various new mechanisms, starting with the increase of budget allocations, which is not easy. This may be the insurance or the equal distribution of budget allocations. “If we have at least a decent compensation, in parallel we will be able to put an end to those illegal cases. Although i would never like any health care worker to be arrested. But, in any case, when you provide a decent salary, and they again deliberately, maliciously continue this process, preventive measures may be implemented”.
