Georgia’s un-universal healthcare

[caption id="attachment_15029" align="aligncenter" width="1900"]<img class="size-full wp-image-15029" src="https://oc-media.org/app/uploads/2020/08/Pills-in-bottle-19-08-20.jpg" alt=" width="1900" height="1268" /> ‘I’d rather eat less bread and buy the necessary medication’, says Keti, who lost her job as a cleaner at a hostel. Photo: Tamuna Chkareuli/OC Media.[/caption] dzsfdaf

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Protest at the Central Election Commission on 8 November 2020. Photo: Mariam Nikuradze/OC Media

COVID-19

Coronavirus deaths pile up in Georgia amidst political unrest

by Tamuna Chkareuli

•5 min read

Despite new restrictions including a curfew and mask mandate, the government has so far failed to halt rising deaths and case numbers of COVID-19. Amidst the pandemic, protesters have also continued to gather in large crowds, often ignoring safety measures. Seventy-eight people died due to COVID-19 in the past 48 hours in Georgia marking a new record since the pandemic began. There have been almost daily reports on social media from patients and their families appearing to show Georgia’s h

Illustration: Mariam Nikuradze/OC Media.

COVID-19

Voice | ‘We are all tired, but we shouldn’t give up’

by Tamuna Chkareuli

•4 min read

In the new spike in COVID-19 cases in Georgia, healthcare workers are facing new challenges. Nino Kvirtia, a doctor at the First University Clinic in Tbilisi, talked to OC Media about fighting both the virus and disinformation. ‘I’m a resident doctor at the First University clinic and I’ve been working actively with COVID patients since March. I start my 24-hour shift by checking what happened overnight. Because of the paperwork before and after the shift, it can actually last longer than 24 h

Inga Dundua, a paramedic for 25 years, can no longer walk following an accident at work. Photo: Tamuna Chkareuli/OC Media.

Feature Stories

How Georgia’s Emergency Services abandoned a paramedic left paralysed at work

by Tamuna Chkareuli

•10 min read

Left paralysed after an ambulance crash, paramedic Inga Dundua has been forced to fight the Emergency Services at every step of her rehabilitation. On the night of 9 June 2019, an ambulance was called to an address outside of their service area — something that happens quite frequently in Georgia. It had been raining for some time and the roads were slippery. The ambulance was called to Nadzaladevi District, a notoriously hilly area of Tbilisi. Senior paramedic Inga Dundua and her assi

‘I’d rather eat less bread and buy the necessary medication’, says Keti, who lost her job as a cleaner at a hostel. Photo: Tamuna Chkareuli/OC Media.

COVID-19

Georgia's sick left in agony as affordable medications disappear

by Tamuna Chkareuli

•6 min read

The economic crisis resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic has left many in Georgia without work and unable to afford the medicines they need. Closed borders have also made getting cheaper drugs from abroad all but impossible. Georgia’s borders have remained closed since 18 March due to COVID-19, with limited exceptions. Polling suggests average household income may have almost halved, and those who were directly dependent on the tourism industry, are now facing a tough choice of either saving t

Nino Beselia Photo: Tamuna Chkareuli/OC Media.

cancer

‘Life shouldn’t be a luxury’ — a Georgian woman’s struggle to afford life-saving cancer treatment

by Tamuna Chkareuli

•5 min read

Despite partial government funding for cancer treatment in Georgia, for society’s most vulnerable, the remaining costs can still be insurmountable. For one woman suffering from breast cancer, scraping together the money for life-saving treatment has been all but impossible. Fifty-year-old Nino Beselia was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2017, but for two years she delayed getting the tumour examined for financial reasons. ‘Back then I didn’t realise it’s the most important thing. When I fina