Baku, Azerbaijan, Mar. 31
Trend:
If we hadn’t paid due attention to healthcare system, our capabilities today would not be sufficient to provide for our needs, said Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev in his speech at the inauguration of “Yeni klinika" medical institution in Baku, Trend reports.
“In general, a lot of work has been done in recent years to improve the healthcare system in our country. Since 2004, more than 750 medical institutions have been built or overhauled. I personally attended the opening of many of them. There is not a single city in Azerbaijan today that would not have a modern medical center, a hospital. The construction of central district hospitals is ongoing in three or four cities, and they are expected to be opened in the near future,” said the head of state.
President Ilham Aliyev said that this year alone, he has attended the opening of central district hospitals in Gazakh, Goranboy and Shamkir.
“Just imagine that if we hadn’t paid due attention to this area, our capabilities today would not be sufficient to provide for our needs. I remember that when I had just started working as president in 2004, several people were killed as a result of a residential building collapsing in Lankaran. Many more were injured. I immediately went to Lankaran, visited those affected and was horrified by the picture I saw. It was completely impossible to call that building a hospital. In other words, it was a run-down building with rusted equipment. There was no equipment in the wards –only ordinary beds. I asked what it was. They said that it was a central district hospital. I asked where those in critical condition were. I was told that they were in intensive care. I asked to be taken to intensive care and said that I wanted to visit them. And what an intensive care unit it was! We went one floor up to the same rooms, same walls, same wooden beds and no equipment. I asked whether this was an intensive care unit. They said it was,” said President Ilham Aliyev.
He noted that such was the state of our healthcare system in 2004.
“On my instruction, the construction of the first medical diagnostic center immediately began in the city of Lankaran. After that, about 20 diagnostic centers were built in our districts. As for the construction of central district hospitals, as I have already said, these hospitals are still not up to standard perhaps only in two cities, but there are plans to build them as well,” said the head of state.