About $100mln invested in Armenia`s healthcare system - premier 

ArmInfo.Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan visited Gegharkunik Province and attended the opening  ceremony of the new building of the Martuni Medical Center.

The Prime Minister congratulated those present on the occasion of the  opening of the medical center and noted. "This is a very important  day for us, not only because we are opening a newly built and fully  equipped medical center in Martuni, but also with this, in fact, we  are launching the final stage of the construction of at least 50  medical facilities in Armenia. During this process, a number of  medical centers are being built in the regions."

The Head of the Government presented the list of medical centers  currently under construction and undergoing major repairs. Thus, the  regional hospital of Vayots Dzor, the medical centers of Sisian,  Vagharshapat, Tsaghkahovit, Masis, Nairi region, Tashir, and the  building of infectious diseases at the Vanadzor medical center are  being built. The medical centers of Talin, Ashtarak, Charentsavan,  etc. are being reconstructed.

"This program has a clear political and healthcare goal. That goal is  to bring medical services as close as possible to the person, to  bring them as close as possible to the patient, so that making use of  them does not create additional complications. For a very long time,  we have also witnessed the over-centralization of medical services,  and residents of our regions who needed to receive health services,  even on state orders, had to make a lot of additional payments,  including for transportation, accommodation, etc. Our policy since  2018 has been to bring services closer to people. It is more  effective, it is part of the logic of balanced territorial  development and ultimately, accessibility of people to medical  services is an important feature of well-being," said Nikol  Pashinyan.

In the context of the development of the health sector, the Prime  Minister emphasized the need and importance of early diagnosis and  prevention of diseases. "Our policy is to prevent disease, to make  early diagnosis, and this is the reason why we are creating many new  outpatient services parallel to medical centers in Armenia."

The Head of the Government presented the modernization processes of  medical centers, including polyclinics, and noted that these projects  are already underway. some are in design, some in tender, some in  construction stage. In the near future, the medical centers of Artik  of Shirak Province, Vardenis of Gegharkunik Province, Vedi of Ararat  Province, Jermuk health center of Vayots Dzor will be built.

"Generally, as of now, around 100 million USD are being invested in  the healthcare system of the Republic of Armenia in the regions,  including the Martuni Medical Center. And this is very important  because our approach remains the same, starting from school, we must  educate and have a strong community in mind, a strong community in  body, a strong community psychologically. And all these three  directions are somehow related to healthcare," said Nikol Pashinyan.

The Prime Minister also referred to the mechanism of raising the  salaries of the outpatient healthcare staff, due to the  implementation of which, in some places, a salary increase of up to  170 percent was recorded.  Nikol Pashinyan emphasized that in that  case, better quality medical service is also expected.

Summarizing the speech, the Prime Minister thanked all those who  contributed to the implementation of the project. "Congratulations to  all of us again. I want the health center to have as few patients as  possible, but let everyone who enters here discharges fully healed.

Long live the Republic of Armenia."

The construction works of the new building (about 4720 square meters)  of Martuni Medical Center of Gegharkunik Province started in July  2020. In order to complete the modernization works, the center was  also equipped with modern medical equipment, furniture and  accessories. Within the framework of the program, hemodialysis and  blood transfusion services were established in January, 2020. As a  result of the implementation of the project, the newly built  multi-functional center with a capacity of 79 beds, in accordance  with all modern international standards, with wide opportunities to  perform diagnostic and therapeutic ambulatory and inpatient services,  will serve the population of the region on the spot, close to their  places of residence. About 3.3 billion AMD have been invested in the  Martuni Medical Center modernization project.