By Ruzanna Khachatrian
A new law regulating the public health sector will view healthcare as a “national security factor”, Health Ministry officials say, as “an unqualified doctor is very dangerous to society”. Deputy Minister of Health Tatul Hakobian says a new law is being drafted to reflect the changes in the sector that happened since the adoption of the current law in 1996.
These changes, in particular, concern the private sector whose role in medical services has increased since the mid-90s.
According to the Ministry of Health, the concept of the new law will be as follows: the state’s increased regulatory role, specification of terms and conditions for issuing licenses to medical establishments and facilitation of the process of withdrawing licenses.
It is suggested that medical education should be a state monopoly and that any medical method applied in the country should be by special permission.
The draft will not remove provisions regarding medical service by state order. Health Minister Norayr Davidian says the draft gives much importance to further developing the ‘family doctor’ institution and especially to developing primary health services, for which purposes, according to the minister, large allocations will be made from the budget.
“It is a common knowledge that preventing a disease is easier than treating it. And it is easier to treat a disease at early stages, that’s why we attach so much importance to primary health services,” said Davidian.
Speaking of the accessibility of the state order, i.e. free medical services, to the population, Davidian said: “The increased accessibility of these services over the last two years has resulted in a greater number of applications to doctors, while the list of diseases treated free of charge has not actually been extended.”