Baku. Konul Kamilqizi – APA. Azerbaijan has prohibited the sending of ambulances from districts to capital Baku.
A Zagatala district resident told APA in a complaint that a patient’s family tried to send him to Baku, but first aid workers said they were not allowed to do so because their work is monitored via GPRS devices installed inside ambulances. Rather, when a patient has to be taken to Baku, an ambulance will be sent from Baku to bring him to the capital. Furthermore, patients will be admitted to certain hospitals, but not private ones. This rule applies to all districts of Azerbaijan.
In a statement to APA, healthcare expert Adil Geybulla said that there can not be such a prohibition, noting that anyone can benefit from medical service anywhere.
“That is so in the whole of the civilized world. People in developed countries rely on medical insurance from healthcare system,” said the expert. “But this type of examinations on insurance can be both local and centralized. Obtaining insurance on one’s own funds is a matter of choice and no one can prevent them.”
As for the development of districts, he noted that healthcare system allows people to have access to medical service where they live.
“For example, healthcare service is high enough in Turkey’s Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir, etc. So Turkish citizens do not need to go to Istanbul for better service. That’s the kind of healthcare system we need to create,” Geybulla said stressing the need to resolve this issue with reliance on healthcare and high development, rather than administratively.
“For this reason, citizens must be allowed to be operated on anywhere they like. Or if citizens have compulsory insurance, then the insurance company will decide where they should be treated,” he added.
Geybulla noted that since Azerbaijan does not apply compulsory medical insurance, citizens should be free about this matter.
He outlined that although there are newly built medical facilities and new equipment in districts, there is a lack of enough personnel capable of using them. In that case, Geybulla thinks the prohibition of sending patients to Baku brings about some problems.
“Unfortunately, we are experiencing a lot of difficulties in this area. Municipal health care and compulsory health insurance in the country are not well developed,” he added. “A number of young professionals who have been trained in Turkey, the United States and European countries are working in Azerbaijan. However, as the western system is not available in Azerbaijan, they have difficulties in the process of adaptation to the local health care system.”
The expert explained impossibility of involving highly qualified medical personnel in all districts.
“First of all, the doctors’ salaries are not so high, and secondly, no activities are being carried out to motivate them to work in the districts,” he said calling on the society to change attitude towards specialists protecting the nation’s gene pool.
Referring to the system of duty shifts in hospitals, Geybulla said this system should be applied properly.
“Natural disasters, crimes and man-made disasters can occur at any time. Well-organized first aid should be provided in hospitals. There should be a surgeon, anesthesiologist, rheumatologist on duty in every hospital for urgent appeals,” he added.
Head physician of the Health Ministry’s Emergency and Urgent Medical Aid Station Miralem Jalalov told APA that there should be an important document for bringing a patient from districts to Baku.
“GPRS system was installed in all ambulances. The ambulance provides information while leaving the district. Not everyone can be taken to Baku by ambulance. Much better conditions were created in districts. If needed specialists are sent to the districts,” he said.
Jalalov noted that instructions were given to impose a ban on bringing patients to the capital from districts. “Today, all the hospitals are well-equipped and most surgeries are conducted in districts. Recently, the surgery conducted in Russia was conducted in Shirvan district. The child hit by a car in Aghdam district a few months ago, had no chance of survival.
A neurosurgeon went from Baku and carried out a surgery and the child is in stable condition now.
The head physician added that patients from districts can be taken to Baku to only certain hospitals. Saying that patients brought from districts are first hospitalized in the Republican Clinic Hospital, Jalalov stressed that for now onward, they will be taken to Clinic Medical Center and institutions specialized in various diseases.
The physician said that ambulances are not allowed to take patients to private medical facilities and this rule has always been complied with from the very beginning.
Explaining the system of duty shifts in medical institutions, Elkhan Azizov, the head of Law and Internal Control Sector of the Health Ministry told APA that doctors work on schedule shift in the afternoon.
According to him, duty shifts shall be based on the Labor Code.
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