What is the disease of medicine in Azerbaijan?

A 35-year-old Mikail Mustafayev suffered for several years from a neoplasm on his neck, which increased to several kilograms. He could not turn his head, his neck hurt all the time, pains were given back and forearm.

"In Baku, doctors treated me for a malignant tumor, prescribed chemotherapy, and then operated three times. No improvement. The tumor continued to grow. He could not sleep, he could eat normally, he could not move his left hand. He urgently went to Turkey. There they conducted a survey and performed an operation. Now I'm fine, I'm healthy. I am grateful to the Turkish specialists," the website of medicina.az reports, citing Mustafayev.

A singer Nazim Pishyara, known as the "phaetoner" Nazim, has faced the situation; after an unsuccessful treatment in the capital's clinics, he had to leave for Israel and Turkey. The doctors there brought the singer back to life.

However, the young actress Mila Amin, who is known for one of the main roles in the TV series "Shade", appearing on the television channel Xəzər, could not be saved. According to the website qafqazinfo.az, within a month she complained of severe headaches, as it turned out, pus accumulated in her brain. But due to wrong diagnose of local doctors, the treatment did not bring improvement. When she was taken to clinic Turkey, it was already late ...

A resident of Baku, 64-year-old Allahverdi Rzayev, for many years has been trying to obtain justice in the Ministry of Health and the Prosecutor General's Office. Earlier this year, with complaints of back pain, he went to hospital N3 in the Sabunchu district of the city. He was referred for MRT and other tests. Then he underwent surgery, assuring that soon it would be normal to walk and even run. All this cost him 1000 manats. After a couple of months with severe back pain, he again went to the same hospital. This time the doctor gave him another diagnosis and admitted that the operation was useless. Today Allahverdi wants to be reimbursed for moral and material damage. Will he succeed in this big question?

Such facts with well-known and lesser-known people in Azerbaijan, you can often find on social networks Facebook and Instagram, popular sites. The population in the country has formed a certain opinion about the professional level of Azerbaijani doctors. However, as it turned out, the low competence of Azerbaijani doctors is known in Georgia, Iran and Turkey. Recently, according to the website modern.az, the general director of New Hospitals Hospital in Tbilisi, a specialist in the design of medical institutions, Nika Okriashvili, talked about the influx of patients from Azerbaijan to Georgia.

"There is a city of Ganja in Azerbaijan. There, taxi drivers know where the clinics in Tbilisi are and bring dozens of patients. According to estimates, only 8,000 patients come to Georgia from Ganja and its closest districts to Georgia every year. Azerbaijan has a lot of money. There are big hospitals built there. But people come to Tbilisi for treatment," Okriashvili said. His words aroused amicable laughter in the hall.

Our citizens with health problems also go to Iran, Turkey, Russia, Germany. The choice of the country and the clinic depends on the financial capabilities of the patient.

According to one of the Baku travel agencies, specializing in sending patients abroad, Narmina Abbasova, mainly high-ranking officials and members of the parliament go to Europe for treatment. Other categories of citizens go to neighboring countries. This trend is intensifying. The course of treatment there is expensive, but effective. Such facts sooner or later become public. People think that it is risky to entrust their health to Azerbaijani doctors.

A reasonable question arises - dozens of clinics and medical centers have been modernized in the country, modern equipment has been purchased. Why such costs and who needs this show-off? Independent expert Samir Aliyev explains the situation for financial and economic reasons.

"There is a significant financial deficit in the health sector. Salaries of physicians remain low. The work of doctors is not properly evaluated, and they understand this; and therefore is this attitude to their duties and patients, from which any pretexts are taking money. Another very disturbing symptom: the number of employees is rapidly decreasing in the health care system. Good specialists go abroad. A serious problem is the low level of training, corruption. All these factors negatively affect the activities of this sphere. We must think about raising the salaries of health workers, increasing their competence," Aliyev said.

It is important that new thinking and a new culture oriented at the patient come to all levels of the health system.