Doctors' salaries up 7 pct this year - Health Ministry

    MOSCOW, August 13 (Itar-Tass) -- The salaries of doctors rose in the
first half of 2011 by 6.8 percent, and those of nurses, by 7 percent as
compared with the 2010 level, as follows from statistics quoted at a
meeting on the implementation of regional programs to modernize health
care at the Health and Social Development Ministry this week.
    As the ministry's press service told Itar-Tass, 34 regions of Russia
made incentive payments to doctors and nurses.
    One of the important issues of the undergoing reform of the healthcare
is the introduction of uniform standards of medical care throughout
Russia. All regions are actively implementing federal standards, which
with the adoption of the law On the Protection of Citizens' Health will
become common and mandatory in the entire country. The adoption of the law
is expected at the autumn session of the State Duma. The standards,
according to participants in the meeting are "a basic tool to improve the
quality and availability of medical care and raise the salaries of medical
personnel, because the state will be paying for the services provided by
the medical organizations."
    "The Health Ministry has developed a list of medical services - more
than five thousand services will be uniform across the nation," the ministry said.