ArmInfo. RA Minister of Healthcare Arsen Torosyan commented on the situation around the maternity hospital l in the Maralik community (Shirak region). To recall, yesterday the local residents, learning about the closure of the hospital, closed the Gyumri-Yerevan highway in protest.
In particular, they expressed concern that the closure of the hospital would adversely affect the availability of medical services.
On January 9, in an interview with reporters, Torosyan informed that in mid-2018, it was decided to revise the list of medical institutions providing obstetric care services. According to him, this was due to the fact that earlier the corresponding categories (I, II and III) were awarded by orders of the minister, and sometimes these decisions were really groundless. As explained by Torosyan, the size of state funding depends on the category of the hospital.
The focus of the Ministry of Healthcare was the state of buildings and premises of these medical facilities, technical equipment, staffing, as well as their level of training. An important role was also played by the number of births accepted on an annual basis (the minimum indicator is 150), as well as the factor of the distance of a particular medical institution from the hospital, which provides a wider range of medical services. If the distance is about 15-20 km, then a decision is made to close this medical facility. In the case of the maternity hospital in Maralik, the distance from the Artik MC is 15 km. In addition, as the minister explained, the maternity hospital in Maralik is not able to provide a full range of reanimation medical services. Torosyan noted that taking into account the great remoteness of some settlements, exceptions were made. This applies to those medical facilities that are located in Berd, Chambarak and Meghri.
According to the minister, this policy on revising the list of medical institutions providing obstetric care services is based on the interests of citizens and is aimed at reducing child and maternal mortality.