In Kyrgyzstan, only every seventh medical worker who had had coronavirus received promised compensation from the government.
When the first Covid-19 case was registered in Batken region, Kanygul Zhoroeva, doctor of the infectious diseases unit of Batken Joint Hospital, was the one of those who were saving lives of the Kyrgyzstanis in the “red zone”. She recalls how difficult it was at first as no one knew how to help people.
The health system was absolutely unprepared and medical workers were the only weapon against the infection. They were sent to the centre of the infection without any training and even without personal protective equipment. Everyone remembers the speeches of medical workers on social media when they told that they did not have even facemasks.
Their stories were tried to cover up; medical workers who ventured to tell the truth to the people were subjected to persecution. It worked and they kept silent. But the number of coronavirus cases among medical workers increased and proved what we already knew – that doctors were thrown under the bus.
During the fight against coronavirus, Kanygul Zhoroeva was also infected. Long weeks of treatment left their mark.
“The first coronavirus case was a resident of Batken district, he was admitted to our hospital in March 2020. Back then, we didn’t know how to treat coronavirus. Neither had we personal protective equipment. I got infected when I was working in the red zone. I was lucky to recover,” she said.
In May 2020, the government promised to pay compensation in the amount of 200 thousand som or just over 2,300 dollars to such infected medical workers as Kanygul Zhoroeva. The amount is rather modest, but medical workers would be glad to receive it.
“So far, I have not received the promised compensation. But I still hope that the state would carry out its obligations,” she said.
Askarali Ysmanov, a paramedic of the Batken Town Ambulance Centre, is also waiting for the compensation. He, just like many others, provided first aid to coronavirus cases from the first days of case detection. And he got the infection himself.
“They said that if we catch the infection at work after we provide care to patients, the state will pay the compensation to us. However, I haven’t received anything so far,” the man said.
According to Arzybek Borubekov, coordinator of the Health Ministry in Batken region, the special board reviewed documents of 110 medical workers who caught Covid-19 at work, and submitted the documents of 76 medical workers to the Health Ministry.
“We have not paid out compensations to these cases. As to the medical workers whose documents were not approved, the board failed to identify that they had had coronavirus or caught it during work,” Borubekov said.
We wish these were rare cases. But the official statistics suggests otherwise. Out of 6,295 medical workers, according to deputy minister of health Zhalalidin Rakhmatullaev, only 925 persons received the compensation in the amount of 200 thousand som.
“3,089 medical workers filed applications to get compensation for catching Covid-19 in 2020. Out of them, 1,117 colleagues were approved for the compensation. However, unfortunately, we managed to pay out 200 thousand som to each of 925 workers and 1 million som (11.8 thousand dollars) to each family of 32 deceased medical workers by December 31, 2020,” Rakhmatullaev said to Sputnik.
Payments were divided into two stages. In May 2020, 200 thousand som compensation was paid to each of 145 medical workers, and one million som compensation was paid to each of 21 families. In aggregate, they were paid out 50 million som (590 thousand dollars). In the second stage, in September, the compensation was paid to 780 medical workers (200 thousand som each) and 11 families received 1 million som each.
Compensations to the remaining 20 persons would be paid out this year. According to the ordinance of the cabinet of ministers, 243 million som were allocated for compensation to medical workers,” the official said.
According to Rakhmatullaev, there are no problems with payouts on the part of the Health and Social Development Ministry today. The delay is on the part of special boards that review the cases among medical workers.
“There was a board of the Health Ministry previously, but now these functions are delegated to all health care facilities. Thus, every medical facility has a board, which decides to pay compensation or not at the local level. All decisions of such boards on every single case now come not to us, but to the Compulsory Medical Insurance Fund. We have delegated these functions to them,” the deputy head of the Health Ministry said, thus explaining the lack of updated information about new applications for compensation.
CABAR.asia turned to the Compulsory Medical Insurance Fund, and it said that the process of delegation of functions to pay out compensations to medical workers who had had Covid-19 is pending, and they do not have any information. While the state agencies shift the responsibility to each other, medical workers are waiting. The more time goes by, the more risk to get nothing eventually.
If medical workers who managed to file an application in 2020 can expect the state compensation for 200 thousand som, the applications received this year will be calculated at another rate. According to the new rules of compensation calculation, its amount was reduced by 62.5 per cent to 75 thousand som (885 dollars).
“The one-time payment to medical workers in the amount of 200 thousand som was fixed in emergency situation, it was not calculated properly. The current compensation for 75 thousand som is the 15-fold amount of the average salary of medical workers, we’ve taken 5 thousand som as the basis,” Azamat Zhumakeev, the head of the legal department of the Health Ministry, explained to CABAR.asia.
In addition to reduced compensation amounts, the requirements to ill medical workers have been toughened as well. In particular, if the board finds that the medical worker has ignored precautionary measures or committed negligence that led to the infection, they will not be paid any compensation.
This article was prepared as part of the Giving Voice, Driving Change – from the Borderland to the Steppes Project and mentorship programme under the Development of New Media and Digital Journalism in Central Asia project delivered by the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) with support from the UK Government. It does not necessarily reflect the official views of IWPR or the UK Government