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Opposition activists in Brest region collect over 1000 signatures against charging people for visiting inpatient hospitals

The Brest regional organization of the Hramada Belarusian Social Democratic Party collected more than 1000 signatures for a petition against charging a fee for visits to outpatient clinics, Ihar Maslowski, head of the organization, told BelaPAN on Friday.

This past January, the organization launched a campaign against the proposal to introduce such a fee. In December 2012, the head of the Baranavichy City Executive Committee, Viktar Dzichkowski, suggested that people should be charged a fee of 5,000 rubels ($0.6) for a visit to an outpatient clinic.

The campaigners called on political parties, non-governmental organizations, trade unions, local soviets, and residents of the Brest region to publicly discuss the proposal and express their attitude toward it.

“We have received a number of letters in response to our call and our petition to local authorities,” Mr. Maslowski said. “Even local soviets and pro-government NGOs are cautious about Dzichkowski’s proposal. The fact that the proposed fee has not been introduced shows that our campaign has been a success.”

He said that conferences were to be held in Belaazyorsk on Friday, in Baranavichy on Saturday and in Brest on Tuesday to discuss the results of the campaign.

While speaking at the health ministry’s board meeting on January 30, 2013, Deputy Prime Minister Anatol Tozik claimed that from 30 to 40 percent of all visits to outpatient clinics were unfounded. Earlier, he put forward proposals for reducing the number of visits to outpatient clinics, but the proposals were rejected. He suggested charging 5,000 rubels for a visit to an outpatient clinic.