RESIDENTS OF ARMENIAN TOWN COMPLAIN ABOUT DOCTOR’S CRIMINAL CONDUCT
12:37 02.10.13
Several residents of a north-eastern Armenian border town have raised
complaints about a local doctor, accusing him of a non-conscientious
conduct leading to many deaths and fatal disorders.
In a letter to Tert.am, the residents of Berd (Tavush region) call
for urgent measures for getting rid of Aram Harutyunyan, the head
doctor of the town’s medical center.
Describing the Harutyunyan as a criminal and a man-slaughterer, the
authors of the letter claim that despite their repeated complaints to
the local authorities and different competent bodies, the doctor still
keeps heading the clinic, remaining unpunished. The Berd residents
bring specific facts which they say the courts have successfully
managed to cover up thanks to bribes.
“In the period of the Artsakh [Nagorno-Karabakh] war, Aram Harutyunyan
permissively appropriated the aid sent to the border cities and towns
and the defenders of our fatherland. He made many crippled during the
years of war, unduly cutting their injured hands and legs because it
was easier and cheaper than the treatment for saving a limb.
“Having serious mental disorders, he created a kind of atmosphere that
made all the goods specialists at the Berd hospital quit their jobs.
“In the past 30 years, Harutyunyan has not performed a single
operation not entailing a complications or necessitating a further
surgery. The Tavush region residents have specific facts on how he
orders his employees to falsify test results to create an illusion
of a necessary surgery. The residents [of Berd] have been complaining
for years that he steals patients’ organs.
“He owns a pharmacy inside the hospital, which sells drugs at prices
five times higher than do other drug-stores. But he threatens to
revenge a patient whose family tries to buy medications from the
other drug-stores of the town,” reads the letter.
The Berd residents further complain about the local ambulance service,
which they claim has turned into a super-profitable business belonging
to Harutyunyan, and point to specific facts when his professional
misconduct resulted in the death of patients.
Tert.am contacted the Ministry of Health for further comments, but
a source speaking to our correspondent said they are not directly in
charge for regional hospitals.
In further comments to Tert.am, Karine Dovlatbekyan, the head of
the Tavush Regional Administration’s Healthcare and Social Security
Department, denied the reports about any malfeasance by the doctor.
“There is definitely nothing of the kind; and there cannot be. Should
the things be in such a state of neglect, the regional administration
will be in the know. There’s nothing of kind the now. The situation
is under control,” she said.
As for the complaints that the head doctor owns a pharmacy, forcing
patients to buy drugs from there, Dovlatbekyan answered,
“Opening a drug-store is a person’s right. It’s none of anybody’s
business. Who can now prove that there is a drug-store registered
as Aram Harutyunyan’s property? That man is not now in urgent
circumstances. If those people cannot forget their grief and pain,
it is their problem.”
Armenian News – Tert.am