Civil.ge reports that the Georgian Justice Minister Kote Kemularia has come under fire from human rights groups over the suspected mistreatment of ailing prison inmates and corruption in the healthcare sector. In the past month alone there have been two cases of prisoners dying from viral infections.

“Prisons are overcrowded. There are twice more inmates in the cells, which are designed to home only 15 prisoners. The budget lumpsum was allocated by calculating 23 Lari [USD 12,7] for feeding each inmate, but because the number of prisoners has increased, this sum in reality now amounts to only 14-15 Lari [about USD 8 per month]. While for medical treatment only allocated 3 Tetri [less than USD 0,02] for each inmate is allocated,” Tea Tutberidze, chair of the 19-member prison monitoring group told Civil Georgia.

“Corruption makes the situation even worse. Even if an inmate is healthy but he pays USD 500, or more, he can be transferred to the hospital, where conditions of course are much better than in cells,” she added.

There are, of course, cases of corruption in the Armenian prison system although I haven’t heard of anyone dying as a result. However, corruption in the Armenian medical system, and especially “informal” payments demanded off even those patients who are entitled to free treatment, is systemic. Currently, reform of the health sector should make this less likely in the future (famous last words) but for now at least, it is one of the reasons why only one in three Armenians seek medical assistance.

The thriving practice of informal payments at virtually every government-funded hospital or policlinic means they remain reluctant to seek even those medical services that are officially free of charge. According to the most recent household survey conducted by the National Statistical Service in 2003, only one in three people with health problems visit a medical facility.

[…]

The de facto bribes range from 1,000 to 50,000 drams ($100) or even higher. They go up sharply after hospitalization.

Ruzanna Yuzbashian, who heads the prophylactic department at the Armenian Ministry of Health Care, does not deny that the illegal practice is widespread. “I don’t know how much they pay,” she told RFE/RL. “Medical institutions are limited liability companies and they agree the amount of their fees with their founders. But I can assure you that specialized policlinic consultations are much cheaper than hospital services.”

Almost everyone who has come into contact with the medical services in Armenia knows this. In my own case, doctors demanded $100 for the birth of my son although by law, it should be free and most recently, $250 for his hernia operation although the state supposedly guarantess free medical treatment for children under 7 years of age. We refused to pay but 19 other parents that morning didn’t. In just half a day, $4,750 passed hands and went unrecorded by one doctor alone.

Still, it could have been worse.

After already having sold possessions and taken out a loan to pay $4,000 for treatment, the nephew of some friends of ours died after his parents ran out of money. “If you can’t pay any more then get yourself another son,” the doctor reportedly told them. When I met the kid a week before he died, he was in agony and his screams were unbearable. Another doctor told us our son would die in a week if we didn’t pay her “as much as you think your son’s life is worth.”

We sought a second opinion and of course, there was nothing wrong with him.

Hopefully, if all of these issues are made public in Armenia and Georgia as well as in Azerbaijan, they can eventually be resolved. That’s why, in my opinion, an open and critical debate on the situation in all three countries of the South Caucasus is more beneficial to their long term viability as states than partisan, nationalist propaganda. Anyway, the full news item on corruption in the health sector as it pertains to the Georgian prison system can be found online here.

Incidently, there’s an interesting story from RFE/RL published in March on narcotics being smuggled into Armenian prisons by “bad employees.”