The Milli Majlis Health Care Committee had its first meeting (as a videoconference) of the spring parliamentary session on 21 January.

Committee Chairman Ahliman Amiraslanov who started the meeting said that the agenda had to do with the work that the Committee had carried out during the 2020 autumn session as well as the work plan for the 2021 spring session.

Then, Mr Amiraslanov presented the 2020 autumn session performance report, saying that there had been 10 meetings with 14 matters considered at them. The list had included the Bill ‘On Human Organ and Tissue Donation and Transplantation’ and draft amendments to the laws ‘On Medical Insurance’, ‘On Protection of the Population Health’, ‘On the Social Protection of Orphans and Children Deprived of Parental Care’, ‘On the Private Medical Practice’ and so forth. The Health Care Committee had brought up several relevant matters as the Bill on the 2021 State Budget of the Azerbaijan Republic was in the process of deliberations. The health care allocations due from the State Budget had been increased sufficiently.

As was further mentioned at the meeting, the intended deployment of the compulsory medical insurance system all over the country this year will cause the quality of the public medical services to go up. According to the Committee Chairman, that the Budget’s spending on health care was increased whilst the pandemic was raging all over the world and the Patriotic War was in progress on top of that came as a sign of the Azerbaijani president’s close attention to public health and his thoughtfulness of it.

The Committee received 238 applications in the report period; 211 of those were forwarded to concerned authorities for consideration and subsequent appropriate actions. The incoming correspondence touched on financial difficulties that the applicants had had with medical treatment and surgical operations; there were also applications concerning finding housing accommodation and employment, and pardons for convicts.

The MPs Soltan Mammadov, Kamaladdin Gafarov, Mushfig Mammadli and Ilham Mammadov who were present at the online meeting voiced their views of the presented report; they also shared opinions about the current state of the health care system. Besides, the speakers touched on such palpitant matters as the implementation of the compulsory medical insurance programme, countering the coronavirus, accumulation of professional knowledge in public health care and so on. The MPs pointed out that the autumn parliamentary session of last year progressed in a tense period and that, at the same time, it coincided with the victory that our triumphant Army led by Commander-in-Chief Ilham Aliyev had gained. A propos, they congratulated the people of Azerbaijan on the Victory, commemorated the fallen warriors and wished soon recovery to those who had been wounded in combat.

The 2020 autumn session performance report of the Committee was approved in the end.

Then, Mr Amiraslanov tabled the 2021 spring session work plan of the Committee. He told the assembled that there would be discussions of the Bills submitted as the legislative initiatives of the President of the Azerbaijan Republic, of the Milli Majlis MPs, of the Supreme Court, of the General Prosecution Office and of the Supreme Majlis of the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic. In addition, it is planned to draft a bill ‘On Reproductive Health’. There should be hearings about what steps are taken in the country in connection with the coronavirus infection, about the country situation caused by COVID-19 as well as about the proposed amendments to the statutory and regulatory enactments concerning the application of the compulsory medical insurance, optics and the optical practice and, inter alia, about cardiovascular diseases.

Deputy Chairman of the Committee Rashad Mahmudov and the Members Kamaladdin Gafarov, Malahat Ibrahimghizi, Soltan Mammadov, and Sadagat Valiyeva commented on the work plan and put forth several pertaining proposals.

After that, the MPs approved the 2021 spring session work plan of their Committee.

The Press and Public Relations Department
The Milli Majlis