YEREVAN, OCTOBER 31, ARMENPRESS. “Human Rights and Healthcare” conference will be held in Yerevan on November 7-9.

Lawyers, doctors, healthcare specialists and specialists in healthcare law, representatives of public and private healthcare sectors will take part in the conference.

The conference participants will discuss the issues existing in the sector, the current protection mechanisms of the rights of patients and health workers, the right to healthcare maintenance, as well as the ways of solving the issues.

Specialists from different states – Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Macedonia, the United States and etc, will take part in the conference.

Chairman of the conference, Deputy Minister of Justice Suren Krmoyan told “Armenpress” the conference is being held for the first time, and it is planned to make it continuous.

“The conference will have its significant contribution to exercising and protecting the right to health maintenance since it aims to discuss at international and state levels the achievements of Armenia and regional countries over the protection of human rights in the medical assistance, service, healthcare sector in the recent years, and to raise the problems faced by the sector”, the Deputy Minister said.

He said despite certain changes conducted in the field in recent years, there are still problems, and they will try to find solutions with foreign partners.

“For instance, the project of modernizing the healthcare services in the correctional facilities will be discussed during the conference, the project of mental health, palliative care which is a new type and relates to alleviating the symptoms of pain and medical assistance to patients at the end of their life will be discussed. There is one important emphasis as well: in recent years very serious technological developments are taking place. We are making information exchange, apply personal data, information databases with different ways in the healthcare sector. We need additional regulation concerning technologies, thus, we expect that the conference will raise the existing issues not only faced by Armenia, but also all participating states”, Suren Krmoyan said.

“Law Development Center” NGO Chairman Violeta Zopunyan said there are still much to do in order to have a fully developed system.  

“I highly appreciate that specialists from countries, where the right to healthcare is more advanced, are taking part in the conference, and there will be an opportunity to share experience, to propose solutions both in practical and legislative fields”, she said.

She stated that there are few specialists in the healthcare law, and this issue will also be discussed in the conference.

“We are also going to talk about the rights of vulnerable groups, which includes also people with disabilities. Yes, there are certain issues in this regard. Our organization is aware of the cases when they refuse to provide medical assistance, or sometimes demand money when there is no fee set by law”, she said adding that they are going to discuss this issue, how to handle it, find solutions.

The registration deadline for the conference is November 1.