Azerbaijan, Baku, 1 February / Trend / The paid services in the medical institutions of Azerbaijan, financed by the Public budget, were liquidated from 1 February. An order on this issue was issued by Azerbaijan's Minister of Health, Oktay Shiraliyev, on 17 January 2007.
The paid services were applied in order to fill up the financial lack in the budgets of the medical institutions. However, the revenues from the paid service made up only 1% of the necessary budget of the medical institutions. In the past years, the funds allocated for the health sphere in Azerbaijan increased by four times and currently total AZN 330mln. Due to it, the necessity to render paid services lost its importance.
Due to the liquidation of the paid services in the State medical institutions, the number of patients will significantly increase because significant part of population is not capable to pay off medical services. However, the quality of the medical service will significantly decrease and the conditions will worsen for realizing the rights of patients for free selection of the doctors and treatment organizations. Such regulations of medical aid will not satisfy the demand for qualitative medical service. Shadow medical services will appear, which will not be able to keep pace with the legal medical aid in the private and State medical institutions.
The unpaid medicine will not be qualitative, but it needs to become reconciled with it as guarantee of aid in each financial condition, otherwise, poor layer of population will be deprived of it.
(Leyla Abdullayeva, expert of Trend Analytic Center)