At least 90 percent of medical workers have still not received a compensation promised by the state for fighting the coronavirus. The Coalition for Democracy and Civil Society reported.
It is noted that the organization, with the support of the Soros Foundation-Kyrgyzstan, is launching an information campaign for medical workers affected by the coronavirus. The Coalition aims to maximally inform the medical community who and how can get monetary compensation for infection or death from COVID-19.
One of the main problems of health workers’ rights violations in Kyrgyzstan lies in their lack of awareness and poor access to information.
«Following the launch of the project «Protecting the rights of health workers in Kyrgyzstan during the COVID-19 pandemic» in 2021, the Coalition set up a special hotline to support the medical community and provide qualified legal assistance and advice to affected health workers. More than 250 calls were received from health workers, some of which were group calls,» the organization said.
More than 90 percent of the requests were about labour law violations and compensations to COVID-19-infected health workers during the state of emergency.
Director of the Public Health Programme of Soros Foundation-Kyrgyzstan Ilimbek Sadykov recalled that in April 2020 the government said that health workers who contracted the coronavirus at work would receive compensation of 200,000 soms and the families of deceased medical workers would receive 1 million soms. Later, in 2021, the amount of compensation was reduced.
According to the coalition, since 2021, the organization’s lawyers have assisted more than 100 representatives of beneficiaries’ rights. «Despite the bureaucracy and intricacy of the normative legal acts in the healthcare sector, more than half of the cases have been resolved positively by the state authorities. Nevertheless, even with a positive decision in hand, many health care workers cannot receive the claimed compensation due to lack of funds in the state budget,» the Coalition added.
In addition, the Coalition has developed a number of informational and educational materials to facilitate the procedure of applying for compensation for the medical community and to improve their legal knowledge. They are available on the website. The hotline number for health workers is 0501725911.
