From: EurasiaNet
Published July 31, 2008 07:56 AM.
http://www.enn.com/top_stories/article/37812
Azerbaijan may have the mega-energy revenues needed to build roads and to refashion its military, but when it comes to regional healthcare, the country's attention appears to be focused elsewhere.
Like many rural Azerbaijanis, Intigam Mammadov, a resident of Imamgulubayli village in southern Azerbaijan's Agdam district, feels shortchanged by the situation. The lack of a well-quipped local hospital cost his father his life in 2006, Mammadov believes, adding that his father was a long-time sufferer from bronchial asthma. "The closest hospital is situated . . . four to five kilometers away from our village," he recounted to EurasiaNet. "But this hospital has neither suitable conditions nor educated doctors. Since the quality of medicalservice is not satisfactory, there are very few people who go there," he said.
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"The geography of healthcare services is very limited," noted the head of one humanitarian organization. Himayat Rizvangizi, director of Himayadar, estimates that some 29 villages in the southern region of Lenkoran, bordering Iran, have no medical facilities. That number climbs to 44 for the northern region of Tovuz and 123 for Guba in northeastern Azerbaijan. The findings are based on research done for Oxfam on child mortality rates in those three regions.
The health ministry's Gadirli puts the number of such villages in "the hundreds."
Given living conditions in Azerbaijan's regions, the situation comes as no surprise to some experts.
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Himayadar's Rizvangizi contended that the ministry could get past that problem by selectively placing clinics in areas with limited public transportation, such as in the mountains. "In the winter, mountainous villages become isolated and cut-off, and people don't know what to do when there is a need for urgent medical aid. For instance, during the winter, patients who live in the mountainous villages of Guba have to walk up to 15 kilometers to reach the nearest medical facility."
Meanwhile, the health ministry has come up with a program with Baku's Medical University to prompt young doctors to head to the regions. Under the initiative, some 70 to 80 percent of the school's graduates will be sent in 2008 to work outside of Baku. Particular emphasis would be placed on sending gynecologists and those with midwifery skills.
