Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya: “Today, April 7, is World Health Day. Every country wishes to have healthy citizens because they are the ones who work, bring benefits, and pay taxes instead of taking sick leaves.
And what about healthcare in Belarus? I'm afraid you know perfectly well. Everyone remembers how the government called the coronavirus a “psychosis” and offered to help the sick with tractors, hockey, saunas, and anything but real medical care. When volunteers of the ByCovid19 initiative rendered assistance to doctors, the officials not only failed to help them but also hindered their work.
Just look at the latest news about healthcare. For example, in Slonim, a local hospital is looking for 58 new employees. This is about half of the staff of the entire institution. That is, in a town with a population of almost 50 thousand, the hospital is staffed to only half of its capacity!
If you think the Slonim hospital is the only one in Belarus like this, it’s not. There are dozens of such understaffed institutions in our country. The reason is that doctors are being arrested and imprisoned, and unwanted ones are fired as part of “downsizing” or according to the lists of “ideological foes”. After all, the government doesn't care where Belarusians receive treatment. Police officers have their “elite” hospitals to go to instead of “ordinary” ones where doctors lose their jobs.
Unfortunately, there is no one who can help Belarusians. There is a shortage of doctors and medical personnel literally everywhere, but even despite the repression and terrible conditions, there are people who stay and work in Belarus. And they are our true heroes”.
