Two years ago “Chronicles of Turkmenistan” reported on corruption in the Perinatal Center of the Mother and Child Hospital.
At the hospital doctors first make enquiries about the financial situation of a patient’s family and only later about his medical condition.The majority of parents feel they have to go into debt so that their child undergoes a course of treatment.
In the past doctors asked parents to bring the required medications, syringes, cotton wool and bed linen and they are currently also asking to bring personal hygiene items.
The situation remains unchanged.Parents of children undergoing treatment in the in-patient facility told a correspondent of “Chronicles of Turkmenistan” that a week in the centre costs 107 manats ($5,5 at the “black market” rate),10 days cost 152,39 manats ($7,8).Treatment, medications and other essentials need to be paid for separately and often unofficially.
Due to the high unemployment rate, including in the hospital, only one family member in many households has a permanent job or a family makes a living by doing odd jobs.
Under these conditions the treatment of a child often becomes almost an unsolvable problem challenging.
According to parents, a massage therapist has to work one 12 children per shift.However, they manage to give treatments to 35-45 children.
If the official fee is paid at a cashier’s desk, the massage lasts two to three minutes.If an additional fee of 50 manats is paid to a masseur, the treatment may be extended to 12-15 minutes.
Parents are charged an unofficial fee of 200 to 400 manats ($10-20) is for 7 massage treatments for gastrointestinal diseases and an additional 50 manats for the massage cream, which costs 38-45 manats in a pharmacy.
If a family is unable to pay for cream, a doctor suggests they buy petroleum jelly at 8 manats.
However, the Centre is experiencing staffing problem. According to an employee of the administration, over the past year four masseurs resigned because the working conditions were too tough and the salary too low even taking into account unofficial income as they have to give a considerable part of it to the administration of the medical institution.
In other medical centres of Ashgabat money extortions from patients have become wide-spread. For instance, a circumcision procedure in the plastic surgery department of the International Centre for Surgery and Endocrinology costs 52 manats. However, a surgeon requests an extra payment of 200 manats “to ensure the child’s health”.
In February 2022 President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov expressed the opinion that another Pediatrics Centre needs to be built in Ashgabat.The post Patients of Ashgabat Perinatal Centre report money extortions by doctors first appeared on Chronicles of Turkmenistan.