Lukashenko to Healthcare Minister: it is necessary to make medicine accessible to all
Medical services in Belarus should be accessible to all citizens – as stated by the President of Belarus, Aleksandr Lukashenko, while being reported by Healthcare Minister Aleksandr Khodzhayev in Grodno, BelTA reports
"We need to make our medicine people’s, as we used to say – for it to be accessible to everyone on equal terms,” the President set the main task for the Minister.
The Head of State asked Mr. Khodzhayev of how he was progressing in his new job, whether he had any problems, and how personnel issues were being resolved.
The Healthcare Minister reported that the President’s instructions are being fulfilled, including on pricing and personnel.
"Is Vladimir Stepanovich [Karanik, Governor of the Grodno Region and former Healthcare Minister] rendering help, or has he distanced himself?” Aleksandr Lukashenko asked, and the Healthcare Minister responded, “He helps us, we constantly analyse the emerging issues together with him. Our working relations are such that I can ask him for advice.”
The Head of State asked whether the Healthcare Ministry’s staff operates well, and whether any personnel issues need to be resolved. Mr. Khodzhayev reported that several candidates will be proposed in the very near future.
"If you do not follow the flow, but act as Mr. Karanik – adhering to a strict course, the healthcare branch will demonstrate results. As I have said we have many control points there. There are plenty of clans who like to act as they wish, serving the bosses. Order must be restored,” the President stressed.
Aleksandr Lukashenko also touched upon the personnel issue in the branch as a whole, “We may hear that we lack someone – doctors or nurses. Listen, we have enough of them. The only issue is that some categories of people, including doctors, want to work like in Belarus but live like in the West, also receiving high salaries. There [in the West] people, especially young, work day and night, and I know that for sure. They work non-stop, and get money for this.”
At the same time, the Head of State drew attention to the fact that doctors in the best Belarusian clinics earn decent money. Moreover, the state has previously provided substantial financial support to doctors. "My promises were fulfilled. In the pandemic times, extra money was paid, and I told [doctors] then that those sums would be preserved. I did that, though doctors did not believe it would happen. We preserved those payments, but it is now necessary [for medical staff] to be active as well. Theirs is a wonderful profession, a wonderful specialty – probably, the best one in the world. Of course, it envisages responsibility and personal activity – so redistribute and work properly," Aleksandr Lukashenko said.
Vladimir Karanik, in turn, added that the President had earlier decided to provide financial support to doctors in an even larger amount than the Healthcare Ministry requested. “Few people remember now, but I know that our proposals for financial incentives in the pandemic were increased several times by you. We did not even voice that much," he said.
