Doctors Protesting in Ganja

In the second largest city of Azerbaijan, Ganja, the staff of a local railway hospital held a protest on January 18 in connection with the decision of the Railway Office to transfer the hospital to cost accounting.

Blocking roads, the doctors and nurses are demanding cancellation of the decision, since the transition to self-sufficiency would mean the closure of the hospital, which in the current economic crisis cannot financially secure itself.

The protesters demanded a meeting with the head of the executive branch, but instead they were dispersed by the police, according to Radio Azadliq.

Earlier, during the adoption of the state budget-2017, independent experts warned that a number of government agencies will be eliminated due to lack of funds.

In turn, the representative of JSC Azerbaijan Railways Sevinj Gadirova told Turan that in connection with the upcoming structural changes in the system of Medical-Sanitary Service staff cuts will be held.

She confirmed that it is related to the lack of funding, because the state budget does not provide money for the maintenance of the service.

"In the case of optimization of the costs staff reduction is unavoidable,” Gadirova said, without specifying what kind of institutions will be eliminated.

According to her, hospitals will not be closed, but the staff will be reduced.

Another option may be the transformation of some institutions to self-financing.

With regard to the protest of the railway hospital staff in Ganja, Gadirova called the action "inappropriate" because "it is not yet known how many employees and who exactly will be fired."    -05B-