Advocate applied for the assistance of the Human Rights Defender in order to return the money that was charged for the surgery of his client.
He informed that his client, who is a detainee and has health problems, was transferred to civil hospital in an ambulance car accompanied by the police officers and immediately underwent a surgery. The hospital required money for the provided service despite the status of the person as detainee, which means that he has a right to receive free of charge medical assistance and service guaranteed by the State. The advocate informed about this also the representative of the medical center, however they still were required to make the payment.
A discussion procedure has been initiated at the Defender’s Office and written letters were addressed to relevant state bodies in order to receive clarifications.
Based on the Defender’s letter, the Ministry of Healthcare carried out a monitoring in the medical center and revealed that the detainee was transferred to the medical center in an ambulance car, accompanied by the police officers, which was also registered at the reception. Considering the relevant decision of the Government, the medical center was informed in a written form that this case should be included in the relevant state-funded programme and the charged money should be returned to the citizen.
As a result of cooperation between the Defender’s Office and Ministry of Healthcare the citizen received back more than 600.000AMD that had been charged.