Doctors in Uzbekistan earn money on sick prisoners

Sick women (prisoners in Uzbekistan) are experiencing serious problems in accessing medical care. Monitoring conducted by human rights activist Tatyana Dovlatova revealed a high level of corruption in the hospital of Zangiata district of Tashkent region, where patients come from the nearest penitentiary institutions.

Prisoner Rano Mavlyanova has not received full care for eight months. She has stomach cancer and a lack of skin on her stomach’s muscles. Human rights activist Tatyana Dovlatova told the ACCA correspondent about the terrible plight of the prisoner Mavlyanova and the generally degrading attitude of medics to women prisoners.

“I myself was convinced of this by talking with the “convicts” as medical workers contemptuously call them,” says the human rights activist. “Now Rano Mavlyanova is denied free medicines, there is no ointment, gauze, adhesive tape and medicines for her. She had 4 serious operations, became disabled, but there is nothing free for her.”

Monitoring revealed a lack of a proper assortment of medicines, and the rest are overpriced. “Patients themselves buy medicines, and nothing is free at all,” says Dovlatova.

Patients think that the deterioration of supply, the lack of free medicines and the disgusting care of sick patients is due to the change of the hospital’s chief doctor. Overnight, patients “buy everything themselves, including gloves, alcohol and cotton, as well as syringes and medicines,” says Dovlatova.

The human rights activist also tells about other cases of unprofessional approach of doctors to sick prisoners. “Svetlana Podkopaeva, who had bronchial asthma and a non-functioning right lung, was at the hospital for 15 days and was discharged with a temperature of 37.5,” said Dovlatova. “The temperature doesn’t come down so far, the prisoner herself is in the colony No.42. There is the conclusion by the pulmonologist on the importance of hospital regime. Nevertheless, by order of the new chief doctor Rakhimov, she was discharged from the hospital.”

Rano Mavlyanova in intensive care for 18 days experienced hate and contempt from the surgeon Rakhmatulla Khakimov. “Don’t worry about her. Let this wardress die” said Khakimov, not at all embarrassed that the patient hears all this,” said the human rights activist. “He calls the convicts contemptuously “zechka”. Conducting an examination, if he finds out that the woman is from the colony, he defiantly turns and leaves, refusing medical aid.”

Dovlatova also emphasized that medical officers, by deception, also take food from patients. “A month ago, the condemned patient Gulmira Tashmetova was visited by her relatives from afar. They brought her watermelon and melon, but officers took them away from her saying that there was an order from the deputy chief doctor Khosiyat Bazarova to ban the transfer of watermelons and melons to patients,” Dovlatova said. “The audit showed that there is no such decision by the administration.”

This is not the first time that the human rights activist with her colleague has visited this hospital. After her complaint to the President’s People’s Reception Office, the Head of the second department of therapy, who extorted money from female prisoners, quit her position. However, as Dovlatova notes, this did not reduce the corruption passion of doctors. “It is a known fact that they took 2,200,000 sums (about $260) from a seriously ill prisoner for operation; now they extort $200,” the human rights activist emphasized.