Patients refuse to take social services in the Volgograd Region

In the Volgograd Region, thousands of heavy chronic patients in need of permanent use of expensive drugs applied for refusal from social services for 2006. The correspondent of the "Caucasian Knot" received this information in the press service of the Volgograd regional duma.

Natalia Latyshevskaya, chairperson of the duma committee for health protection and ecology, stated that one of the reasons that affected the situation was sometimes poor quality of explanatory work about rendering assistance in the form of social services. "The work was done by the employees of the Pension Fund, who, in the opinion of physicians, not always and not completely know the prices on medicines and medical services. As a result, people started to refuse to get social services in kind, preferring to get the monetary compensation," Natalia Latyshevskaya said.

In her words, under the current legislation, in this case the persons lose their right to obtain social services during the whole year. Finally, today the patients have to buy expensive medication, where the compensation does not cover the price, for their own money. Often they cannot afford it at all, since drugs are very expensive. Therefore, an erroneous decision to give up the set of social services makes treatment actually unavailable for these persons, and puts their health and life under threat.

The committee for health protection and ecology recommended the Volgograd Region duma to move their legislative initiative to the State Duma on amending the procedure of providing social assistance, and provide a chance to the people to recall their applications on refusal from social services, setting the deadline for this procedure.