The President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili

There are many other problems as well in the region, but the hospital indeed is an important center for hope, progress, and also is a foundation for further advancement.

To me, this hospital is an embodiment of the idea of equality – despite how much income one has or where one lives, he should have such an opportunity of healthcare, as this available in developed countries.

In parallel to this, the same has to be done in education, so that our children grow and our people have better conditions.

The program of hospitals is in principle successful, but corrections are always necessary.

On the one hand, I would like to thank those who take part in building of these hospitals, while on the other, I would like to underscore that new collectives have been created since these hospitals started functioning.

It is very important that the salaries are paid on time everywhere.

I want to stringently warn the insurance companies that if salaries are given late anywhere, we will employ the harshest sanctions with regard to them.

On the one hand, we give them a hand in everything, but may god forbid the “stuffing” of money to doctors to start over again.

 We should work so that the salaries of doctors and, especially those of junior medical personnel are always raised, so as not to put them in a position to turn towards someone else’s hands.

The old system has been done with. The new buildings of hospitals are not the only most important so are theses doctors and nurses. If we do not create conditions for them, this system will entirely collapse.

This is very important and because of this I will not tolerate for the salaries to be late even by one day. They can arrange this as they like, but people should get their salaries on time.

I have a very important and pleasant function today. We are opening new hospitals, but this is not the start of a medical tradition in Georgia – this is the continuation of medical tradition.

Georgia had a great tradition of medicine and it still has it today. This tradition is not a generic concept – for instance, the best doctors in Moscow during the soviet times were Georgian. There are a many doctors in America and Europe that are from Georgia. They pass exams very fast and quickly blend in, but what delights me most of all is that they are thinking about coming back.

There are also people who stayed here, created the medical field on the ground even in very difficult conditions – when the best supply and equipment during the soviet times, obviously, was to be found in the Moscow and other Russian hospitals – the bulk of the resources went to their modernization. The core thing, the better thing that we had, was not the equipment and supply, but were our human resources, our doctors.

One of the most excellent representatives of the great Georgian medical tradition is Professor Guram Tatishvili. I do not want to use the term “founder” with respect to him, as he is still young, is full of energy and actively pursuing his work, hence I do not want to talk about him in the past tense.

Just imagine the father of Mr. Guram was shot when he was 8 years old. So many tragedies happened to Georgian families like this. I myself come from such a family. 

In effect, for the people that came from such families many spheres had been closed, many of them pursued the medical direction, as it is a very noble profession.

It was a profession which allowed you to do useful work for people and serve them in that unfair country.

Mr. Guram was one of the youngest candidates of science in that period and was one of youngest doctors in science (PHD), while also leading a rather important chair; he is an utterly important member of the society, one of the founders of the Georgian Academy of Science and its first vice-president. 

Most importantly, he saved and healed great numbers of people and hence has done many kind things. It was him, who raised many great doctors, including, of course, within his family.

The large family of the Tatishvilis’s is an entire dynasty of doctors, yet besides this, thousands, tens of thousands of our specialists were directly or indirectly related to the school founded by Guram Tatishvili.

If there is any word that can adequately depict his work and esteem, this word is “excellent”.

As a sign of great gratitude, and in order to emphasize the Georgian medical tradition of which we are all proud of continuing – we have many things to recall, which is one of your main merits, I would like to decorate you with the Presidential Order of Excellence.

Mr. Guram, you are a great symbol of all of this and for that I thank you.

Guram Tatishvili

I am happy to be in one of my particularly favorite districts today, in Tetri Tskaro and share the joy resulting from the arrival of the President. I am in my 83 year already, but after your words I would like to recall my teachers: the great Egnate Pipia, the great Mikheil Chachava, Mamed Komakhidze and others. These people created the field of surgery and you are raised in such a family that you, probably know about the soviet clinics from your family members – It is true, the Russian hospitals were better equipped than ours, but we had much better surgeons, better specialists.

To tell you more, Mr. Iustine Janelidze was the chair of the Surgeons Society of Soviet Union; likewise, Professor Zedgenidze was the chair of Radiological and X-ray all-union society. Georgians were in the lead of many directions of medicine.

I would also like to remind you of one thing. You opened a clinic of my son, David Tatishvili in Saburtalo last year. You took a look inside and then came out, an improvised meeting was held there and the street instantly became crowded with about 100-200 people. I stood beside you, while you talked to them. I remember well, you pointed towards the clinic and said: We will build several dozen of such clinics in Georgia.

It is indeed a great thing that about 40 hospitals have been opened already. They would not even have thought of doing such a thing in any of the former soviet republics and would not have succeeded anyway.

To tell you more, I have been to almost every country in Europe. I had a position then which even obliged me to do it. What is being done in the sphere of medicine today in our country is an indulgence for many countries of Europe – I mean the opening of these types of hospitals.

I greatly thank you for this.

I consider this award to belong to my teachers and students, to those who do the practical work in the country.