The quality of water supply and the availability of doctors concern residents of rural areas of the Vitebsk region

June 4, Vitebsk / Diana Kurilo - BELTA /. Communal and household issues are the most problematic for residents of Vitebsk, Polotsk and Senno districts. This was concluded by the interdepartmental working group for monitoring the state of work of state bodies and organizations of the Vitebsk region with the population, the Vitebsk Regional Committee for State Control informed a BELTA correspondent. To study the situation in the districts, group members met with work collectives of six enterprises and organizations at the end of May 2012, and monitored two dozen shops, several healthcare facilities, schools, houses of culture, and libraries. In total, more than fifty people applied to the working group members during the monitoring. For the population of the districts, issues of housing and communal services, including water supply, housing stock repair, street lighting, land use and land management, and the activities of executive and administrative bodies, were pressing. The largest number of problematic issues (54.9%) concerned housing and communal services. Thus, during a direct telephone line at the Vitebsk District Executive Committee, out of 14 calls received by the Chairman of the State Control Committee Alexander Yakobson, nine concerned communal and household problems. The issue of quality water supply and sewerage is quite acute in the region's districts. People raised these issues in all districts. In the healthcare sector, despite the fulfillment of established social standards, there are issues with staffing of central district hospitals with narrow specialists and their visits to rural settlements, as well as with the provision of medical vehicles and equipment. Specialists of the interdepartmental group noted the high coefficient of compatibility of doctors in outpatient clinics, which indicates a shortage of doctors: general practitioners, dentists, urologists. For example, in the Polotsk Central City Hospital (serving the population of the city and district), 34 district doctors hold 46 staff positions, and 18 dentists hold 28.75 staff positions. In the Vymnyanskaya medical outpatient clinic of the Vitebsk district, which serves over 1,000 residents, the position of head physician has not been filled since January of this year. In fact, medical care is provided by a paramedic. Narrow specialists visit the outpatient clinic extremely rarely, and the general practitioner, who also serves the pediatric population, does not conduct home visits at all. In terms of medical transport, the standard is met by the availability of vehicles, without considering their technical condition. A large part of the medical vehicles are worn out and need replacement. For example, in the Senno district, 8 out of 12 vehicles have a service life of more than seven years. The interdepartmental group proposed that the Vitebsk Regional Executive Committee take measures to improve the quality of medical care, including ensuring healthcare facilities in Vitebsk, Polotsk and Senno districts with specialist doctors, updating the vehicle fleet and its timely repair, and paying special attention to the work of housing and communal services when planning work, carrying out repairs, and fulfilling obligations to citizens. The interdepartmental working group for monitoring the state of work of state bodies and organizations of the Vitebsk region with the population was created in accordance with the instructions of the President of Belarus. Its work in the region was headed by the Chairman of the State Control Committee Alexander Yakobson.-0-