Nationalization of the privately-owned medical centers has already begun: Nordin has already been shut down

On 22 July the Supreme Economic Court did not grant the suit filed by the private medical center Nordin against the Ministry of Health. The management of the company requested that the ministry decision that annulled the license be acknowledged ungrounded. Nordin has been shut down.
The Radio Liberty correspondent visited the liquidated medical center, had a talk with the staff and the people who still do not know that the center has been shut down and so continued to come there and openly show their regret.

Nordin employees say that now they are preparing equipment handover reports and filing dismissal applications. The management of the company refuse to comment on the future of the center. The license department of the Ministry of Health does not comment on the court ruling.

Yet another privately-owned center Ekamedservis that is awaiting a court ruling in the similar case says that they hardly hope for the good outcome of the case. Natallia Kramniova, a representative of Ekamedservis, says: "We feel terrible because the use of administrative resources has no limit. Though the court ruling has not been adopted, we, basically, already feel buried. Of course, there is still some hope left. However, because of this large-scale information wave in the state-owned media there are doubts about the result – we doubt it has not been planned".

Simultaneously, yet another private company Optimed is defending its right to health provision activity in the Supreme Court. The Ministry of Health deprived it of the license on the grounds of the same claims to the level of qualification of the personnel as with Ekamedservis and Nordin. The leader of the Belarusian Union of Businessmen Aliaxandr Patupa believes that this is a deliberate attack of the authorities on the private business.

According to the official information, every year the Ministry of Health issues licenses to medical and pharmaceutical activity to 70 economic subjects. 40 out of this number have their licenses annulled. Only this year 23 medical establishment lost their licenses.

The Minister of Health Ludmila Pastayalka during her speeches repeatedly voiced support for development of private medical services. At the same time she says that the Ministry of Health is starting to create a network of state-owned medical centers that would provide completely paid services. The end-to-end audit organized by the State Control Committee on the premises of the three large private medical centers – Ekamedservis, Nordin and Suchasnaya mikrahirurgiya voka – preceded this.