State-Funded Medical Examination Waiting Lists Extend Until November or Package is Completely Exhausted

In various platforms, citizens have been reporting for months that they are forced to wait for months for their turn to undergo state-funded medical examinations. A reporter from NEWS.am contacted one of the leading hospitals as a patient.

Half of the hospitals stated that they must wait until November, while the remaining centers advised calling next month, as the state funding is currently exhausted, and it is unclear when it will be replenished.

Earlier, Minister of Health Anahit Avanesyan mentioned in a conversation with journalists that the large waiting lists are due to the imported automated scheduling system, which does not allow medical centers to serve patients outside the established order. In an interview with the media, co-chair of the Health Rights NGO, Tsaghik Vardanyan, stated that the changes in the scheduling system were not supposed to impact citizens because they are merely technical changes.

According to her, the real reason for the problem is different. “The ministry should be honest and say, ‘This is what we can do; we cannot do more with the funds we have.’ The attending physician should determine and prioritize care, not this system,” said Vardanyan.

She noted that unique and border cases are included among the urgent state-funded cases, but in addition to those, there are also other severe cases that should likewise receive immediate assistance.

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