Chairman of the Minsk City Executive Committee’s Healthcare Committee Yury Seliverstau said in an interview with Belarusian state television how much a visit to a doctor costs.
According to him, a visit to a general practitioner costs 45 Belarusian rubles, while a visit to a dentist costs 70 rubles without complex treatment. Hospitalization in a therapeutic ward costs 430-440 rubles per patient, while a stay in an intensive care unit costs 1,700 rubles, excluding the cost of medicines, equipment and staff salaries. As is common in such appearances, the official also criticized what he described as unjustified ambulance callouts.
“Another issue is calling an ambulance. Some people abuse their right to do so. For example, an ambulance is called because of a ‘headache’, but upon arrival it turns out that the person had consumed excessive amounts of alcohol the day before and now has a headache as a result. Another real-life situation is when a person is taken to an emergency hospital and then says: ‘Thank you for bringing me here. I live right across the street.’ They refuse hospitalization and leave. These cases are not even about money (although a single ambulance callout costs more than 240 rubles), but about the need for a medical team elsewhere. Perhaps somewhere it will be precisely that team that is needed to save a life, because it is impossible to predict how many calls there will be at any given minute”, he said.
State media also emphasized that “Belarusian healthcare is free for patients, but unfortunately not for the country”, while, as usual, ignoring the fact that the budget used to finance healthcare is funded through direct and indirect taxes paid by residents of Belarus.
