Healthcare (?) in Armenia
Earlier this week I was staying with friends who live in a village near Spitak. While I was there, a neighbour came over for coffee and she told that a woman from the village had died the day before after undergoing surgery at the hospital in Spitak. I don't know how old this woman was, but my guess is she was in her mid-twenties at most, as she had been married for only five years and left three children behind. Apparently, this was not the first time something like this has happened. There are about five or six similar cases in which people died after undergoing surgery at the same hopital. All operations were performed by the same surgeon, who seems to be making a few too many mistakes. The parents of one young girl where fortunate enough to realize in time that something was wrong after she underwent surgery. They quickly took her to a hospital in Yerevan and so saved their daughter's life, as she is now doing fine.
This story is similar to an article Hetq published recently about an apparently incompetent anasthesiologist in the maternity hospital in Alaverdi. Only there at the very least the case has been brought to court, whereas in Spitak so far noone has even gone that far. As I was told: "There's no point in bringing the case before a judge. The doctor will pay money and get away with it." And he undoubtedly will continue to make "mistakes"...
These people are either way too incompetent to work in their professions or they simply don't care about their work and patients. Either way, how can these two people live at peace with themselves?
On the other hand, I know of a foreign woman working here who recently had an appendicitis that needed to be taken care of urgently. She was admitted to a hospital in Yerevan and had to stay there for several days after the operation. None of the doctors or nurses ever asked money from her. They performed their duties and treated her without trying to get extra money out of her. I would guess treating a foreigner would, on the contrary, be a reason to raise the prices, but there are apparently doctors who don't do that, as Klaus also mentioned in his blog.
posted by Myrthe at 12:05 PM
8 Comments:
It is a different story when one is a local. An example would be a good friend of mine whose husband recently suffered a badly broken leg and was taken to a hospital in Yerevan. He was in terrible pain, but no medical personal would do anything to help reduce the pain. When his frantic wife pleaded for help, the nurse coldly said, "Go buy some pain medicine (injection) and give it to him!" Days later, he was finally operated on. He was still in terrible pain and not a nurse or doctor cared or did anything for him. His leg became infected and swelled and swelled but still no one cared. Day and night the wife was with him (leaving her two children at home with neighbors), preparing his meals and taking care of him. After a month, he was released and along with his release he was presented with a big bill--something they must now struggle to pay because they are not well off.
--Knarik Meneshian
It's unfortunate when the healthcare system values profits more than the well being of the patients. For a lot of people being a doctor is just a way of making a living - the patients are a nuisance that need to be dealt with. Since the Soviet times getting into Bjshkakan was a big deal and a lot of money was paid by the youth's parents to get their offspring there. It guaranteed well being. if the parents of the young girls were of more modest means, they arranged their daughter to get into the Bujkuyr school.
No doubt there are dedicated doctors and nurses who care but there probably are more bad apples who should be butchers in the bazar rather than surgeons in a hospital.
The problem is not that people become doctors to make money - since guess what - that's why many ppl do it in the US and India and everywhere else in the world. The problem is when they are DISHONEST. Meaning paying their teachers to pass courses at medical school, prescribing unnecessary treatments for extra money, etc.
Asking some money for necessary treatment on the other hand is only realistic in a country where the government is not truly subsidizing the hospitals.
Lara underwent a C-section at Erebuni Hospital. Great Service, wonderful doctors... to some extent, better than what we have seen in Montreal.
The woman with the appendicitis I wrote about, was also admitted to Erebuni Hospital.
Najarian, you are right, there are some good, dedicated doctors around, who care about their patients and their profession. I know a few of them myself, but hopefully there are a few more out there.
I remembered a conversation I had a few years ago with one of my closest friends who is Polish and lives in Poland. We were talking about exactly the same thing that was happening in her country at that time (I don't know if things have improved since then): people buying their way through med school after which they started practicing their trade without sufficient knowledge. This is something that will affect the future of a country as those incompetent doctors will be around for some time to come. Properly subsidising hospitals, as Raffi K. mentioned, and raising salaries alone is not enough, I think. A change of mentality will also be necessary to root out corruption and money taking practices in education, health care, etc. And also, an appreciation about the value of education, knowledge and professionalism seems to be lacking among many people. Well, this is probably not surprising in a country where it sometimes seems virtually impossible to earn a decent income by exclusively honest work and honest means to support your family a
(continuation)
Well, this is probably not surprising in a country where it sometimes seems virtually impossible to earn a decent income by exclusively honest work and honest means to support your family and were wealth is accessible only to those with connections and/or to those engaging in illegal practices.
By the way, Raffi N.: does Lara's C-section have anything to do with your long absence from the Repat-page? ;-)
The previous, anonymous comment was also mine. Apparently something went wrong.
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