The interregional center for X-ray endovascular surgery will open in Braslav in 2017

In medicine, as in any field, there are quantitative and qualitative indicators that shape the final results. Various areas of work of institutions are envisaged, aimed at the main goal – improving the health of the population. Evaluating the activities of the healthcare system teams of the Vitebsk region based on this and a number of other criteria, the regional department at the regional level gave the palm of primacy to the Braslav District Hospital. Here, in recent years, they have ensured a positive trend in key medical and demographic indicators, rationally used financial resources, retained and trained staff, created conditions for the provision and improved the accessibility of high-tech care.

The chief physician of the Central District Hospital, Alexander Makarevich, and the head of the Department of Health of the Regional Executive Committee, Yuri Derkach, focused on these and other aspects of the work of the Braslav residents in 2015 and throughout the five-year period at the final medical and sanitary council.

Last year, 289 children were born in the Braslav region (10.8 ppm per 1000 population). And in previous years, the birth rate was even higher. Not a single child died in 2015 at the age of up to one year. The hospital acquired an artificial lung ventilation apparatus for newborns. And for the prevention and early diagnosis of fetal development disorders and congenital malformations, almost a thousand ultrasound examinations of pregnant women were performed. The measures taken, as the speakers noted, also made it possible to save the life of every mother and child.

The overall mortality rate of the population has been reduced by 9%, including from old age and external causes. In particular, the number of deaths of Braslav residents of working age and from injuries has significantly decreased, and not a single death due to alcohol poisoning has been registered.

This fact, emphasized Alexander Makarevich, is the result of joint efforts of various services. Primary care physicians who made home visits, systematically examined elderly people and provided them with timely and qualified assistance. Work collectives that cared about improving working conditions, the police, the district department of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, and schools that, together with doctors, carried out effective preventive work.

Early diagnostics also contributed to this, as it has a double effect: for example, in cancer patients, life expectancy increased after treatment, and at the same time, medical care was several times cheaper than in later stages. Such a direct dependence of treatment effectiveness and its cost exists for cardiovascular and other diseases.

For several years, Braslav medics have been rationally using budget funds. They sewed soft furnishings for the hospital themselves, managed to reduce vehicle maintenance costs, and carried out energy-saving measures. As a result, they saved almost 900 million rubles in a year. And they earned more than 4 billion rubles from providing 22 types of paid services.

Using budget and own funds, the team carried out repairs, purchased modern equipment, and effectively used the opportunities of international cooperation. At the same time, they carried out targeted work to retain staff, in which the district executive committee helped the hospital by allocating two apartments for young specialists. This year, as promised at the meeting by the chairman of the district executive committee Vladimir Dranevsky, the district will provide medics with one more, and if possible, more apartments. All of this together has allowed the Braslav Central District Hospital to provide high-quality and accessible medical care.

In Braslav, as informed by the head of the regional executive committee's healthcare department Yuri Derkach, in 2017, the opening of an inter-district center for X-ray endovascular surgery is planned to provide specialized care to residents of Braslav, Mior, Glubokoe, Verkhnedvinsk, Postavy, and Sharkovshchyna districts, as well as neighboring foreign countries, and guests of the lake region.

"We already have the opportunity to provide high-quality consultative and surgical services today," confirmed Alexander Makarevich. "Staff are trained, and the issue of installing an angiograph – a device for examining blood vessels – at the Central District Hospital is being studied, and in the long term, a tomograph."

The work of the collective of the Braslav Central District Hospital has received high praise at the republican level. It was awarded third place in Belarus, after the Mozyr and Zhodino hospitals.

The health and well-being of the population are interdependent categories, and from an economic point of view, healthy people are the most important factor for the sustainable development of the state. Only properly organized medical care makes it possible to improve health in the most effective way. The Ministry and the healthcare department are guiding medical professionals towards such an approach. Therefore, Yury Derkach recommended that doctors approach each patient thoughtfully, using treatment methods based on domestic drugs, in order to achieve rapid recovery with the existing funding.

Tamara Pashkevich. "Vitebskiye Vesti".