The Bălți Municipal Clinical Hospital is not accessible to persons with locomotor disabilities who are confined to a wheelchair, said the Association for Human Rights Lex XXI, which assessed the building to determine its accessibility. Several videos filmed by Lex XXI show how a woman who was taking the wheelchair up the hospital’s entrance stairs because there are no ramps fell and suffered injuries, IPN reports.
Lex XXI head Diana Grosu has told IPN that their association has raised the problem of accessibility of the Bălți Municipal Clinical Hospital, but the hospital’s administration does not react to the requests to make the building accessible.
“Since 2019, we have made approaches to the hospital’s administration. Repair works were performed, but ramps weren’t installed. Flowers, garbage bins, new terracotta – everything is done “for people” in the ambulatory service of the Bălți Clinical Hospital. The stairs of the Consultative Center and at the main entrance to the hospital are under repair works now. They work on the balustrade, but do not take into account the fact that access ways for persons in wheelchairs, for mothers with small children in carriages are also needed. It is sad and worrisome as we have written letters and have raised the issue, but the problem hasn’t been solved,” stated Diana Grosu.
According to her, doctors of the Bălți Municipal Clinical Hospital have to go down to consult a patient in wheelchair. “None of the entrances to the Consultative Center is accessible for persons in wheelchair. These have stairs, but do not have wheelchair access for persons with special needs,” said Diana Grosu, adding that other institutions in Bălți are also inaccessible to wheelchair users, but there they at least try to do something in this regard.
IPN tried to broach the issue with the director of the Bălți Municipal Clinical Hospital Serghei Rotaru, but in the manager’s anteroom they told us that the doctor is busy as he has a meeting.
According to Victor Koroli, executive director of INFONET Alliance, which carried out an audit of the accessibility of public buildings, less than 10% of the public buildings in the Republic of Moldova are accessible to persons with locomotor disabilities.
