Belarusian health resorts lack places for disabled children
This was reported to the BelaPAN news agency by Mikalai Mazur, head of the National Center for Health Improvement and Sanatorium Treatment of Population.
According to him, under the instructions of the state program for the creation of a barrier-free environment for the disabled and other categories of physically debilitated persons for 2011-2015 health centers should have at least 5-7% of the places equipped for wheelchair users. Today the figure is only 1-2%.
Only a few sanatoriums offered their services to children with disabilities in 2013, said Mazur. Rest for children with disabilities is also not organized in the sanatoriums of the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection, where all the conditions for unhindered access for the disabled to social infrastructure have been created.
According to Mazur, at the expense of the national budget and state social insurance in 2012 the health resorts of Belarus were visited by a total of 802.5 thousand people, including 738.7 thousand children. Among the children, 99.6 thousand live in the areas affected by the Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster, 1.6 thousand – disabled children under 18.
