Armenia`s premier participates in opening ceremony of Vayots Dzor  medical center 

ArmInfo.Armenia's Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan visited Vayots Dzor region and attended the opening  ceremony of the regional medical center.

The Prime Minister congratulated those present on the occasion of the  opening of the medical center and thanked the structures that  implemented the project, as well as the tax-paying citizens of the  Republic of Armenia. "There is such a tradition that when classrooms,  wards, departments are renovated or built, it is customary to post  noticeboards about who financed the construction of these structures.  I want to say that the names of all taxpayers of the Republic of  Armenia who participated in the creation of this structure are  written on the walls of this medical center. And I want to emphasize  that during the last year, we commissioned two large buildings in  Yeghegnadzor, the other one being school number 1. I attach great  importance to this link, so that every citizen of the Republic of  Armenia, every tax payer can see the outcome of his work," said the  Prime Minister.

The Head of the Government emphasized the importance of creating an  efficient tax payment system.  "Taxpayers need a place, a way to pay  their taxes. And for this, government officials are needed, who will  deal with the creation of this system of paying taxes, because the  taxpayer cannot put his share of taxes on the sidewalk, on a bench,  or leave them in a bus, under a tree in a park. There needs to be a  system for paying those taxes, created by people who have the  responsibility to do that, because it is not the duty of a builder,  policeman, or doctor to create a system for paying taxes. And this is  the reason why the State Revenue Committee exists in the Republic of  Armenia. And the work of the SRC is not only to track those who do  not pay taxes and apply administrative responsibility to them, but  also to create a system for people to pay these taxes as quickly and  conveniently as possible. And, understandably, in order to make the  payment of these taxes more reliable, such conditions should be  created for these workers so that they do not try to abuse their  power", said Nikol Pashinyan, emphasizing in that context the need to  provide high wages to those workers.

The Prime Minister emphasized the implementation of programs for the  modernization of medical centers in regions. "The task of the  Ministry of Health is to ensure access to health services. And it is  this ministry that analyzes where the health service is fully  available to people and where it is not available. This medical  center was built because we found out, as a result of a long-term  research, that more patients from Vayots Dzor region go to Yerevan to  receive health care than receive it locally, despite the fact that  there are medical centers in the region. The Ministry of Health also  found out that the building conditions of health centers in the  region are not satisfactory, the professionalism of the staff is not  at adequate level. When we talk about medical centers, we think about  making them attractive for medical patients, but in order for them to  be attractive for medical patients, they must first be attractive for  medical workers," said the Head of the Executive.

According to Nikol Pashinyan, medical centers with inadequate  conditions receive few patients per day. As a result, professional  doctors prefer to work, for example, in Yerevan, and their patients  are forced to follow them to Yerevan. "And going after them to  Yerevan, they will spend more funds than they can objectively spend.  And that's what this project is about. We want to create an  attractive center for both doctors and patients. But how is this  center created? The Ministry of Health, our other structures - the  regional administration, the community, the local governments - start  discussions about what kind of health center is needed to be  maximally effective, starting with the size, location, then a  decision is made, a design is ordered. All this, of course, is  financed from the state budget. Then these officials supervise the  design process, formulate technical terms of reference and organize a  tender for the construction company. They declare the construction  company that wins the tender, supervise the construction, the whole  process, so that we get what we got as a result. I described this so  that every taxpayer of the Republic of Armenia can imagine this  process, this is a very short description of how the tax he paid  turns into that school and this medical center."

In the context of the implementation of such construction projects,  the Prime Minister emphasized the necessity and importance of setting  standards. "For example, what technical equipment should the regional  health center have? And this will give the residents of Vayots Dzor  the opportunity to save tens of millions of drams, because they will  not have to go to Yerevan for every medical service. Of course, there  will also be cases when the patient will have to go to Yerevan. a  helipad has been created for emergencies. But I also want to say how  important this is economically for Yeghegnadzor itself, because the  relatives of the medical patients who went to Yerevan naturally shop  there for various needs. Now residents of Vayots Dzor will either not  spend or will spend nearby, which in turn will bring additional  benefits to small, medium-sized businesses located nearby, which in  turn will print cash register receipts with every transaction and pay  their taxes, which in turn will turn into a road, school,  kindergarten, etc. elsewhere.

This is the chain, as a result of which we have this medical center  today. And I really want every citizen of the Republic of Armenia,  every tax payer, looking at this medical center, school, road, to say  to himself: I built, I created, I worked and here, I have a result,  because we are just hired by that citizen, we are the workers, whose  duty it is to direct every dram of tax paid to its place as  efficiently as possible. Of course, that work is not perfect, but it  is also not perfect because we pay just 150,000 AMD to many people in  the state administration system and objectively require work worth  1.5 million AMD. I say this so that our citizens do not regret the  money paid to the administration system, of course, with the  realization that the administration system should be optimal, become  optimal, more professional. But this is a parallel path, because the  way the people react to the administration system, the same way the  administration system reacts. And also, people record how the  administration system treats people."

Nikol Pashinyan emphasized the importance of the medical center in  terms of providing urgent health care services to the victims of  traffic accidents. "Now we have a medical center in Yeghegnadzor, we  have a medical center in Artashat, we are building a medical center  in Sisian. And yes, when the population in our country will increase  as a result of other demographic policies and the joint work of all  of us, there will be medical centers and appropriate medical services  in all places," said the Prime Minister and once again congratulated  those present and wished success to all the workers of the center.

The construction of the new one-story building of the Vayots Dzor  Regional Medical Center is provided by the Government Action Plan  2021-2026 and were carried out within the framework of "Disease  Prevention and Control" program financed by the World Bank and the  credit programs of the latter's additional financing. About 2.67  billion AMD were invested for the modernization of "Vayots Dzor  Regional Medical Center" CJSC, of which 1.17 billion AMD (44%) were  financed by the Armenian government, 1.5 billion AMD (56%) by WB  loans.

The newly built building of the medical center is a structure with  high seismic resistance, meeting the international standards of  modern hospital construction. A boiler house and a power substation  were built next to the building.

The medical center will have a blood transfusion department, a  diagnostic department, including a laboratory, a reception desk, an  emergency room, central disinfection and other support services.  Within the framework of the project, the center was equipped with  modern medical equipment, furniture and medical supplies. As a result  of the modernization, the medical facility with a capacity of 46 beds  will provide high- quality, affordable and modern medical services of  secondary and some tertiary level to about 47.8 thousand people of  Vayots Dzor region, close to their places of residence.