In 5 days consumptives can restart hunger strike

“In case our demands would not be fulfilled, in 5 days we shall restart our protest action in form of a hunger strike or in a different form,” a patient of a hospital Natallya Rahalevich told to “Nasha Niva”. She presented herself as one of the organizers of the hunger strike.

She has underlined that the protest rally hasn’t been stopped. “We have given time to head doctor”. As said by Rahalevich, today officials have visited the hospital. Patients haven’t been told who they were and which institution represented. “The delegation arrived in a Volvo, they were met by the head doctor Douhal. They followed him to be shown the wards,” Rahalevich told. Officials were taken to the wards with bed patients. Conditions in these wards are better, the organizer of the hunger strike told. Patients there cannot talk, and they hadn’t been asked for signatures. Her husband who is a patient of “Navayelnya” as well, invited guests to his ward, but his invitation was ignored. While officials were looking at wards, patients were told that a shower was opened. But the water there was lukewarm. “We are not allowed to wash in such water. But in the moment the car with visitors left, the water was stopped, and the shower room closed”.

Natallya Rahalevich says that over the last two days patients faced a lot of mud flung at them: “We have been called alcoholics, convicts, but all sorts of people are patients here. In general, the hunger strike was organized by women. Half of the protesters were women”. She told how Mr. Douhal offered to solve the problem of receiving money by owners of bank cards: “He promised to take 20-25 persons to a bank in an ambulance. But it’s a violation of our rights. We are free persons, and people would point at us saying: look, consumptives have been taken under convoy!” Patients say that they have received an answer from Public Health ministry concerning the status of the hospital. They say they have received an answer that it is not a closed hospital.

Recently inmates have been told that Ministry ordered to install a video control system in the hospital. “They say they have no money for medicines, but they have money for a video control system!” inmates of the TB hospital are indignant.

The organizer of the protest rally says that most of the patients support them, both young and old. “Now paramedical personnel are expressing their support to us”.

As we have informed, yesterday about 100 patients of the Republican Tuberculosis Hospital “Navaelnya” (the Dzyatlava district, the Hrodna Area) didn’t come to breakfast. They demand improving of treatment conditions. Chief doctor Mechyslau Douhal regards these demands as groundless. M. Douhal thinks the reason of the hunger strike was ban for patients to leave the territory of the hospital. According to him, there are all necessary things on the territory of the hospital, but the patients have an opposite opinion. They say about absence of necessary hygiene means, medicines, qualitative food, they complain of bad living conditions. On January 15 in the morning the hunger strike was stopped for objective causes.