Residents of Dagestan report suspicious medical commission in schools

On March 22, at the only secondary school in the village of Novosasetli, Khasavyurt District of Dagestan, doctors of some medical commission conducted examination of children and, after putting disappointing diagnoses, suggested that parents buy corsets for their children for 500 roubles each; and many parents did it. However, as it turned out, neither the Ministry of Public Health of Dagestan nor the Ministry of Education know nothing about this commission.

"They just palpated the kids and said that 'your girl has poor posture' and 'your boy has osteoporosis, his bones are bad'. Then, they offered to buy small corset with straps at 500 roubles. Almost 90 percent of parents believed them and bought corsets. My wife also bought it for our son, who is a slim and tall boy," Ahmed Khaibulaev, father of one of schoolboys of Novosasetli, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

According to his story, most parents whom the medics inspired fear for the health of their children did not spare money to buy the proposed health care products.

Meanwhile, as noted by Khaibulaev, the school nurse knew nothing about the members of the commission; however, there is information that the "medical commission" is already touring schools of other villages with a similar mission. The source did not know whether the commission has a license on selling medical products or a permit from the Department of Education. People wanted to complain to the Public Health Ministry of Dagestan, but they could not find any information about the members of the commission.

"They showed no documents; it is not known whether they were from Rostov, as they said, because there were not only Russian but also local doctors there," said Khaibulaev. "Usually we have ads on TV that some doctor has come from Moscow, examines people; and it attracts them. People think that if a doctor has come from the centre, he or she is a professional; they don't trust local ones."

Liudmila Bondar, head of the press service of the Ministry of Public Health of the Rostov Region, said that doctors were sent from Rostov to the Caucasus only for providing humanitarian assistance during emergencies.

"This is a profanation. Recently we gave information on television and radio about this sort of yard-by-yard visits. Under the guise of health officials they are selling various appliances. We appealed to residents and explained that this was a lie," Ms Bondar has added.

Nazhmudin Magomedov, Chief Physician of the district hospital in charge of the school in Novosasetli, said: "They (those who introduced themselves as medics, - note of the "Caucasian Knot") did not come and meet with them. They toured over the district schools but never came to the hospital." According to his story, none of the parents had addressed the hospital for confirmation or refutation of the diagnoses put to their children by those "off-the-staff doctors".

Omar Khizleev, director of the municipal educational institution of the village of Novosasetli, said that the principals of all district schools had been invited to the meeting by Tamara Kanamatova, deputy head of the Department for Education. According to his story, a woman from the medical commission of the Rostov Rehabilitation Medical Centre spoke at the meeting and said that the action would be held throughout the republic for two years. She also told that the commission had already worked in Chechnya, Ingushetia, and would now work in Dagestan.

"We were presented no documents. I thought that if it goes 'from the top', then they know everything; and we didn't ask for any documents. If they had come only to our school, I'd have surely asked for their credentials, but they were visiting all the districts," said Omar Khizleev.

According to his story, nobody from the local administration was present at the meeting with school principals. He added that the commission was going to visit the rural Novoossetinskiy Kindergarten.

"Initially, they toured over all major schools; now they visit small ones - both urban and rural. Already over 500 pupils of general educational institutions have passed their so-called medical examination. The spokeswoman from the medical commission assured the principals that the local district administration knew about the free medical examination at schools and kindergartens of Dagestan," added Khizleev.

The Ministry of Education of the Republic of Dagestan could not provide any information about Tamara Kanamatova and refused to connect the "Caucasian Knot" with the head of the Department of Education of Khasavyurt Ruslan Ibragimov.