The President of Georgia opened a multi-profiled new hospital in Khobi today. There are 15 beds in the medical facility and it is equipped with modern equipment. Mikheil Saakashvili compared old and new buildings of hospital and old and new systems of healthcare to one another.

" The personnel that was employed in old hospitals need retraining in order to get adjusted to this new system. The main thing is that people could have a chance to come to this hospital. The contrast between new and old is felt in whole Georgia. Everything old belongs to the past and something new is created everywhere. According to the plan of modernization the construction of hospitals will end fully by 2015, but in the nearest future the major part will be completed. This clinic is one of those 140 that are being done within the frames of the modernization plan. However, the number of hospitals is not the major issue, the major thing is how many people would have a chance to use the service of these hospitals and get treatment there as well", the President of Georgia noted.

Mikheil Saakashvili visited newly constructed hospital and received full information on upcoming plans from the Minister of Labor, Health and Social Security Andria Urushadze. As the Minister said the construction of hospitals is going according to the plan. Besides this the program of professional development for the personnel is being conducted.

"The major thing that we need to reach is availability. Today we have hundreds and thousands of cases when a patient needs to sell everything - furniture, dishes, often they even sell houses in order to survive. We have such cases when people aren't visiting doctors at all. Recently I received a letter from some lady describing her conditions in it. She had breast cancer, but just because her child could hardly took care of family and had no money for the medical treatment - she has not even addressed the doctor. She has not decided to write a letter, until her pain was unbearable, however it was already late. Our lives is full of such tragic incidents and no matter how many hotels we build, if people have no chance to visit them we will have no results. We have very qualified doctors, but many will get retraining still. Today the absolute majority of doctors and medical personnel is dissatisfied with life. They have nominal salaries, it is not 20-30 GEL, but still the personnel sometimes cannot get even it or receive their salaries late. This is why retraining of people is very important in order to make majority of them move to these new hospitals. It is very important for me as well that people wouldn't go to foreign countries in order to receive medical treatment. In older times people used to get treatment in Moscow, now they go to Istanbul, Kiev, Minsk, sometimes in Baku and Erevan. This is not right. I am informed that Georgian doctors that used to work in Moscow or Ukraine are returning to Georgia, because we are already developing right system. Now it is important that this system first of all to be developed rapidly and second it has to be fair and accessible for people", Mikheil Saakashvili stated.

The President visited Abasha region as well, where he went through the hospital under the construction. Alike Khobi, this new clinic will have 15 beds as well and will be equipped with modern equipment. The construction of Abasha hospital will end 7 months earlier and will open in May. Patients would be served using the principles of hospital telemedicine here, it means that patients would discuss the course of their treatment with Kutaisi and Zugdidi clinic doctors. Abasha hospital will receive as urgent patients, also those who needs intensive therapy. All necessary conditions are being created in this clinic for childbirth and childcare. Special beds would be placed for the patients with infection diseases. Also the patients would receive ambulatory treatment, which is very important for Abasha population that would have a chance to receive high quality medical treatment in their own region.

140 hospitals should be constructed throughout the county, 32 from those are already finished.