Medvedev to chair meeting on problems of children's healthcare.

MOSCOW, May 16 (Itar-Tass) - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will
chair a meeting on the problems of children's healthcare, the Kremlin's
advisor, Arkady Dvorkovich, said.
The head of state regularly pays attention to the issue of children's
health. Over the past month Medvedev held several meetings on this problem
and signed over dozens of instructions. He especially focused on such
issues as organization of summer vacation for children, childcare in
kindergartens, assistance to disabled children and the development of
perinatal centres.
On May 13, Medvedev allocated 350 million roubles from the president's
reserve fund to buy medical equipment for babies with a low birth weight.
As a result, every Russian region will get 45 million roubles on average.
"The national health care project that the president ran in his
capacity as vice-premier considerably reduced the newborn mortality rate,"
Dvorkovich said.
According to his estimates, over the past three years the infant
mortality decreased by approximately 28 percent.
Medvedev considers it necessary to facilitate positive demographic
trends that were registered in some regions through "the creation of new
maternity departments and instalment of new medical equipment there."
Childcare is the main theme of the president's state-of-the-nation
address to the Federal Assembly in 2010.
"Our care for future generation is the most reliable, smart and
honourable investment," the president said. "Over 26 million children
living in our country should grow health and happy and become worthy
citizens of our country. This is task number one for all of us."