NCDF Urges Authorities to Take Effective Measures to Combat COVID-19

Baku / 21.12.20 / Turan: The National Council of Democratic Forces (NCDF) of Azerbaijan made a statement in connection with the depressing situation with the COVID-19 pandemic in the country.

The pandemic, which has lasted for almost a year, is a complex problem for the entire planet. The states of the world are responding to this challenge within the limits of their capabilities and economic resources and are trying to overcome natural difficulties by providing serious medical, material, moral, technical and logistical support to their citizens, enterprises and economy.

“We regret that, despite the large financial resources, the Azerbaijani state was unable to support the people of Azerbaijan, who are experiencing great material and moral difficulties in these difficult days, and to provide the necessary support to citizens in the fight against serious diseases and their consequences,” said in a statement by the NCDF.

The document describes the difficulties faced by residents of the country.

In particular, citizens cannot get through to the ambulance service for hours, and sometimes for days. As a result, the condition of patients with COVID-19 who cannot receive any medical care in a timely manner deteriorates, and subsequent medical intervention is often useless.

State medical institutions do not have time to conduct tests in a timely manner, and the cost of this procedure on a paid basis in private clinics is not affordable for the majority of the population living in difficult financial conditions. For this reason, even family members of seriously ill patients with COVID-19, as well as people in daily contact with them, cannot find the means to carry out such tests, which leads to a more rapid spread of the disease.

At the same time, as the NCDF notes, private clinics belong to the ruling elite, which still makes money from the tragedy of the people.

In addition, the quality of the COVID-19 tests conducted in the country is poor. There are many examples when healthy people are confirmed to be infected, but really infected people are not.

In this case, the test results have to wait for several days, and sometimes even more than a week.

The process takes so long that many patients waste precious time on treatment and lose their lives.

The country has an acute shortage of hospitals and beds for patients with COVID-19. Sometimes ambulance teams are unable to place patients in medical facilities and return them home. Many relatives of the patients say they gave bribes to be hospitalized. Hospitalization is often carried out at the "direction of the authorities", and ordinary citizens are subject to social discrimination.

 Many patients with COVID-19 who cannot be hospitalized due to the lack of beds in specialized hospitals are forced to be treated at home at their own expense. In this case, the state does not provide them with material assistance, and the polyclinics to which the patients are assigned do not provide them with drugs or the services of doctors and nurses.

 Patients who do not receive financial support from the state are forced to use the services of private doctors and nurses for high fees.

Pharmacy chains owned by high-ranking officials have also inflated the prices of medicines, which are becoming unaffordable for many given that the country's minimum wage is 250 manats.

At the same time, sometimes an artificial shortage is created and people have to buy and medicines are sold even more expensively through the black market.

In general, the recovery of one COVID-19 patient costs the patient's relatives 1,500-2,000 manats. And this despite the fact that the income of the working population is mainly 250-500 manats, and the vast majority of residents now do not work at all due to quarantine.

 Even many patients who are fortunate enough to be admitted to government health facilities complain about not providing the necessary medicines for treatment, and in many cases they are brought in the necessary funds for treatment from home. Considering that about 11,000 manats are allocated from the state budget for the fight against COVID-19 for each patient, then serious questions arise where these funds are spent.

The NCDF statement also points to the explosion of the oxygen block in the modal hospital of the Ministry of Emergencies in Zykh, where dozens of people died due to lack of oxygen.

Although government officials denied the report, relatives of patients who died at the facility confirmed this fact and said that a serious accident had occurred at the Emergencies Ministry's modular hospital.

The NCDF also points to the delay in vaccination in Azerbaijan, despite the beginning of this process already in other countries, to the high cost of protective masks.

The authors of the document draw attention to the weak social protection of the population.

Thus, out of more than 5 million able-bodied citizens, only 1.6 million have a permanent job. The state aid program in the amount of 190 manats covers only 600 thousand people. And then this amount is provided only to one member of a low-income family.

The NCDF calls on the government of Azerbaijan to take the following necessary measures:

- Urgently create at least several modular hospitals, increase the number of beds in existing medical institutions and immediately hospitalize every seriously ill citizen in specialized hospitals.

- If it is impossible to hospitalize a patient with a confirmed diagnosis of COVID-19, the state must provide him with all the necessary medicines and medical assistance, or each patient must be provided with financial assistance in the amount of at least 1,500 manats for treatment.

- An urgent need to launch a vaccination program for the country's population using only safe and healthy vaccines from the leading countries of the world.

- To increase the amount of financial assistance to those not working up to 300 manats per month.

- The incident at the Modular Hospital of the Ministry of Emergencies in Zykh should be seriously investigated, the perpetrators should be brought to justice and punished, and the public should be fully informed about it.

- The government of Azerbaijan should introduce compulsory health insurance as soon as possible and provide the citizens of the country with high-quality and affordable medical services. —06D-