Medvedev to chair meeting on children's health care problems

MOSCOW, May 30 (Itar-Tass) -- Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will
convene a joint meeting of the State Council presidium and the committee
for priority national projects here on Monday. The meeting will be devoted
to the problems of children's health care system.
The president has initiated an active discussion on the issues of
children's health and the children's health care system recently at all
levels of authorities. Medvedev has made several visits to various medical
institutions and has talked to doctors and medical experts in the last few
months. Medvedev is expected to give several instructions after the
results of the work done are summed up at the Monday joint meeting.
At the recent meetings and conferences the president gave a close
attention to the development of perinatal centers, the aid to disabled
children, the improvement of the child care in the kindergartens, regular
medical examinations at the schools and the issues of summer vacations for
the children. He believes that the positive tendencies in the demographic
development that are taking shape in several regions should be
consolidated, particularly through "the creation of new maternity houses
and their provision with the new medical equipment." Medvedev allocated
350 million roubles from the presidential reserve fund for the purchases
of medical equipment for the care of underweighted newborns. Finally each
Russian region will receive 45 million roubles on average.
In May the president also instructed the government to increase the
salary for school doctors by at least 50%. Medvedev also criticized the
lack of the medical rooms in a third of Russian educational
establishments. "If they (the medical rooms exist there (in the
educational establishments), they lack the equipment and even basic
medicines," he noted.
At a special meeting, which was devoted to the arrangements for the
children's summer vacations, Medvedev demanded to stop the practice to buy
out the children's summer camps, which were in the state property. Then he
instructed the governors to finalize the arrangements in the summer camps
for the children's summer vacations.
The health problem of the younger generation was made the top priority
in a presidential state-of-the-nation address to the Federal Assembly in
2010. "Taking care of future generations is the most reliable, smart and
noble sort of investment we can make" Medvedev said. "The 26 million
children and teenagers living in Russia have to fulfill their potential,
grow up to be happy and healthy and become worthy citizens of Russia. This
is our number one priority," the president underlined.
The president emphasized that a higher quality and availability of
the medical aid, technological modernization of children's hospitals and
outpatient clinics and a higher qualification of the medical workers are
needed for children. "First, we must enhance both the quality and
availability of medical assistance and social benefits to mothers and
their children. We must further develop the maternity certificate
programme, as well as rehabilitation programmes for children under 3 and
low-birth-weight infants," Medvedev noted. "Second, we must undertake
technological modernisation of children's hospitals and clinics and to
upgrade the skills of medical staff working there," he said.
"The third point, which is of the utmost importance, is supporting
young and large families," Medvedev stressed. "Therefore, I believe that
most favourable conditions must be created for large families. In some
regions, for instance, in the Ivanovo region, as far as I am concerned, a
family gets a free land lot to build a house or a dacha when a third child
is born. It's the right kind of decision and a good example for other
regions. I believe that this should become common practice across Russia,"
Medvedev pointed out.
Medvedev noted in his annual state-of-the-nation address that no
less than 25% of allocations for the health care system should be made for
the development of children's health care system.