"Persons deprived of liberty must receive medical aid and services of the same quality and volume as other members of the community" — Arpine Sargsyan

The initiative for ensuring ongoing professional development for the medical personnel working at penitentiary institutions has been brought to life within the scope of the high-level co-operation between the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Health.

A Memorandum of Co-operation has been concluded between the "Prison Medical Center" SNCO and the "National Institute of Health Named after Academician A. Avdalbekyan" of the Ministry of Health. Deputy Minister of Justice Arpine Sargsyan and First Deputy Minister of Health Lena Nanushyan attended the event for conclusion of the Memorandum.

The aim of this co-operation is to implement post-graduate, additional and ongoing professional development and educational programmes in the prison healthcare sector, organise academic and research activities (events), and ensure favourable conditions for educating and training quality doctors.

Deputy Minister of Justice Arpine Sargsyan, congratulating the parties on enshrining the co-operation, emphasised that the policy of the Government on integration of prison medicine into the national healthcare system is being implemented as a result of such initiatives.

"Our persons deprived of liberty must receive medical aid and services of the same quality and volume as other members of the community. From this perspective, it is important to place emphasis on the educational component — the medical personnel may provide proper medical aid if their ongoing and sustainable professional development complying with the current times is ensured," Sargsyan stated.

The Deputy Minister called on the parties to intensively use the toolkit provided under the Memorandum.

Deputy Minister Nanushyan, congratulating the parties on enshrining the co-operation, noted that the current changes in the system of ongoing medical education are important for every medical worker in terms of acquiring skills, capabilities and knowledge during professional activities in order to improve the quality of the medical services provided by medical workers.

She also attached importance to not leaving the medical personnel working in the penitentiary system out of the changes that are being made and expressed hope that the parties to the Memorandum will make the Memorandum serve this maximally.