Komsomolskaya Pravda: “'Medical centres’ too often turn out to be shams”
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin calls for tougher supervision of healthcare and social security.
Yesterday, Vladimir Putin held a government meeting under the somewhat cumbersome title: "Improvement of control and supervisory functions in the fields of healthcare and social security." But in fact, the problems discussed were very real, and amount to the kind of pitfalls Russians face every day with regard to the quality of medical drugs and services.
"The state must carefully track and robustly react to any breaches in the standards of medical care or cases when harm is done to patients' health and life, which unfortunately happens not rarely," the prime minister said.
According to Mr Putin, the government must first identify areas where direct state control is necessary and then find the best mechanisms for protecting the rights of citizens.
To this end, Mr Putin explained, all state operations must be dramatically improved and duplicating or redundant functions must be eliminated.
The Prime Minister also said that punishment, both administrative and criminal, for violating standards and obligations must be toughened, especially in the sphere of healthcare...
"As in other spheres, it is necessary to audit consultant, expert, and registration services rendered for a fee," Mr Putin believes. Medical institutions should not be used as lucrative cash cows for supervisory agencies. Instead, a reasonable state duty could be imposed. As it is, along with brazen bribe-taking, there are also perfectly legal methods of milking entrepreneurs. In 2008 alone, market players paid about 10 billion roubles to Rospotrebnadzor, the government's supervisory agency, for sanitation and epidemiological inspections.
Meanwhile, according to the prime minister, multiple barriers exist for those normal businesses and law-abiding citizens who seek to launch new initiatives:
"If you want to produce special equipment for the disabled, you have to get numerous permits and licenses; the process for opening a new clinic or introducing modern equipment, technologies, and drugs is difficult and costly; and outfits bearing the proud name of 'medical centre' often turn out to be shams."
Mr Putin also shared observations pertinent to related problems in other fields. In his opinion, supervision in the sphere of production and sale of foodstuffs and other consumer goods in Russia is equally excessive.
"You have to obtain a separate sanitary clearance for practically everything," the Prime Minister fumed. "I think that sanitary permits and state registration must remain in place only where their use is universally practiced – for example, in the production of baby foods or dietetic products."
Alexander Gamov
