Tajikistan: General’s son with COVID-19 occupied half of hospital

The general’s son was hospitalized with suspected COVID-19. At the same time, he was placed not with all the patients, but in the suite of a separate block, thereby delaying the operation of half of the hospital in the usual mode.

On August 2, two patients with suspected COVID-19 were admitted to the Sogd regional hospital. Information about the stay of these patients is classified, since they are kept in a special ward, separately from all other patients with the doors closed from the inside. They are treated by specially brought doctors, the chief physician of the hospital visits them four times a day, and the chairman of the Sughd region, Rajabboy Ahmadzoda, fully provides comfortable treatment for elite patients.

As the ACCA journalist found out, one of the two patients is the son of the former Minister of Defense Sherali Khairullaev. He and his colleague are employees of the Anti-Corruption Agency. The main problem for the hospital was that the elite patients are accommodated in the surgical block of the hospital, which was already prepared for a start-up in the usual mode. However, now half of the hospital will not be able to admit patients for another 1.5 months. In the meantime, the medical staff quits due to lack of work.

All other COVID-19 patients are located in the therapy block of the hospital, which is only half full.

As it turned out, the statistics of incoming patients and deaths due to COVID-19 in the hospital are also strictly classified. The list is supervised directly by the head physician who transmits it to the Health Department. The data was classified after information about the real number of patients and deaths due to COVID-19 leaked to the Internet.

Today, the Sogd regional hospital accepts COVID-19 patients only in the city of Khujand. Residents of other cities and districts with suspected COVID-19 are placed in other infectious disease hospitals in the region. At the same time, hospitals accept only patients in severe conditions, which is about 20 percent of all applicants. Everyone else is recommended to be treated at home.

The other day the regional hospital for the first time was visited by the head of the region, Rajabboy Ahmadzoda, who handed over food to the staff. However, as it turned out, none of the doctors received food. All the products went to the hospital warehouse, and who will get them remains unknown.

The doctors did not receive the promised bonuses by the head of the region. Besides, at the request of the Ministry of Health, medical personnel who work in the so-called red zone with COVID-19 patients are paid only 12 working hours per day, although doctors do not leave the quarantine zone for 14 days or even more. After that, they are obliged to remain in quarantine for another 14 days, and they are not paid for this either.

Doctors continue to feel a lack of protective equipment. As it turned out, gowns and other means, which were donated to doctors by volunteer groups, are still used today. Even though they are disposable, the hospital administration processes and gives it to doctors again until the time when holes form on the suits.

Besides, by issuing old, washed protective equipment every day, the hospital administration draws up invoices, as if new suits are being issued to medical personnel.

The Regional Health Department is also involved in corruption machinations. As ACCA found out, Oblzdrav gives out goggles worth 12 somonis ($ 1 is 10 somoni) to hospitals for 53 somoni, and hospitals receive respirators that can be bought in pharmacies for 25 somoni for 43 somoni. Hospitals also purchase medicines from their budget. Thus, only the regional hospital has a debt of almost 2 million somoni ($ 200 thousand).

As doctors note, the Health Department is selling humanitarian aid to hospitals, writing-off budget money. The regional hospital received a batch of humanitarian aid free of charge only on the 45th day of the quarantine, but it will last for a maximum of a week, and now this batch is stored in the hospital’s warehouse as a strategic reserve.

In the meantime, the auditor of the Accounting Chamber arrived at the regional hospital, who has been sorting through all the documentation for several days. Given the level of falsification of documents in the hospital, the chief doctor has already ordered that all medical staff started a collection of money for a bribe. The amount of the bribe will depend on how many violations the auditor finds. So far, at the expense of the hospital, the inspector rented an apartment, he eats in the best restaurants 3 times a day, makes purchases for himself and his family.