And it is really difficult to miss it: almost every month or even much oftener the media reports on new medical equipment supplied to Pridnestroive or new medical services that have become now available.
«Three years ago the most important thing for us, doctors, was the understanding that consideration would be given to the healthcare branch. The main task the President set then was to provide the population with the opportunity to obtain proper medical assistance in the republic, without going abroad," says the healthcare minister, Tatyana Skrypnik.
It was designated to focus on diagnostics in order to reduce the morbidity rate and improve the country's basic health indicators owing to earlier and better detection of illnesses. By the way, the Healthcare Ministry notes that prior to 2012 most of funds allocated to the branch were spent on treatment. Today, this is a common practice to make serious investments to diagnostics and prophylaxis: an illness is easier to prevent than treat.
Pridnestrovie has also decided to move in this direction. To help doctors to detect patients' diseases, the necessary lab equipment was procured first of all.
«This special equipment has helped us to increase the range of services provided in the field of laboratory diagnostics by all medical facilities of the republic. It has become possible to take thyroid hormones and tumour marker tests. Modern fibergastroscopes, coloscopes and colposcopes have been purchased to diagnose different diseases at an earlier stage," clarifies the minister.
Besides, in 2013 Pridsnestrovian hospitals were supplied with up-to-date artificial respirating units, and in 2014 with four new X-ray units and ten fluorographs. The latter have not only facilitated and enhanced the procedure of fluorography but also made it available for a bigger number of people.
Last year two modern endoscopic surgeries were organised in Republican Clinical Hospital and the Republican Centre of Mother and Child. The new equipment has made it possible to perform minimally invasive operations, which are gentler for patients' health.
«When compiling a procurement list, we were taking into account those aspects of medical assistance for which our citizens had to go abroad. Today the basis has been formed for performing such operations, and now people come to see our specialists with increasing frequency," notes Tatyana Skrypnik.
The year of 2015 has witnessed the procurement of modern ultrasound machines for Pridnestrovian hospitals.
All the equipment mentioned above has been purchased at the expense of the Unitary Social Insurance Fund (USIF). In aggregate, the fund has allocated over 500 million roubles to modernise Pridnestrovie's healthcare.
At the same time, the USIF is just one of the sources allocating funds for the renewal of the material and technical basis of Pridnestrovie's medical facilities. The other source is the Pridnestrovian Humanitarian Fund, which has purchased a computed tomographic scanner, several ambulances, blood gas analysers, lung ventilators and among other things reconstructed the Rybnitsa Treatment and Diagnostic Centre.
ANO Eurasian Integration has also contributed to the development of the branch. As part of a large scale project, the organisation is building five medical facilities in Pridnestrovie: paediatric and perinatal departments of Tiraspol's Republican Centre of Mother and Child, chemotherapy department of Tiraspol's Republican Clinical Hospital, anti-tuberculosis department of Rybnitsa District Hospital and Republican Anti-tuberculosis Hospital in Bendery.
The latter are expected to help Pridnestrovian doctors to fight tuberculosis since these facilities has not only been built but also equipped to meet the latest standards. The new anti-TB hospitals will be remarkable not only for the medical assistance of better quality, but also for better conditions for doctors as the risk of catching an infection will be considerably lower.
The cooperation with international organisations — WHO, UN programmes, etc. — has also substantially contributed to the renewal of the material and technical basis of Pridnestrovian hospitals.
For instance, Bendery's ambulance station and the admission room of Rybnitsa's hospital have been thoroughly repaired at their expense.
«We have also repaired the maternity department there. Now repair works are under way in maternity departments of Slobodzeya and Grigoriopol Central District Hospitals. Besides, we have managed to supply these departments with medical equipment at an amount of over $500,000. This is special equipment for delivery and after delivery assistance," said Tatyana Skrypnik.
Alongside the re-equipment of the healthcare branch, the government has been granting assistance to the people suffering from bronchial asthma, diabetes mellitus, renal disease, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS and other socially significant diseases. The Healthcare Ministry underscores that despite the difficult economic situation these patients are supplied with all medications vitally important for their health.
In the past three years Pridnestrovie's healthcare has witnessed significant financial injections. The results of this work will be seen in 5−7 years, but even now, the ministry says, there are some tangible achievements. For example, owing to the new lab equipment, oncopathologies are now detected at earlier stages, which gives greater hope for their successful treatment. For the first time in many years (due to the enhancement of quality and number of tests) the tuberculosis curve, which has been constantly rising, has now stopped dead.
And what is most important, the new equipment, supplied in the past years to maternity departments, has helped to save lives of 50 newborns, who have not had a chance to survive before.
