Head of Russian Government Vladimir Putin signed a decree giving Chelyabinsk Region’s oncologic clinic the status of a district medical center, Deputy Governor Evgeniy Redin informed Governor of Chelyabinsk Region Petr Sumin. The center therefore became the only one with such a status among eleven clinic located in different Russian constituencies. Another ten oncologic dispensaries are going to become regional medical centers.

As a matter of fact, Chelyabinsk Region was involved in the program targeted at decreasing cancer-related mortality rate as early as last year. Now that the local dispensary became a district one, the clinic will be able of providing hi-tech help to both the region’s dwellers and the citizens of entire Ural Federal District. What is more, Chelyabinsk Region is to get additional funding (over 870 million RUR this year) from the federal budget to buy some modern diagnostic equipment and master the new cancer treatment methods.

The Ministry for Healthcare and Social Development reports this program is expected to decrease the number of deaths in the region caused by cancer to 201 in 2009 and to 190 in 2012, while the figure for the year 2007 was 203.

The spokesperson for the Governor reports plenty of efforts have been made by the regional authorities to help the clinic acquire the district status. For one, two positron emission tomography centers are being put up in Chelyabinsk and Magnitogorsk, with nearly 1.2 billion RUR allocated from the region’s budget for this purpose.

Governor Petr Sumin spoke highly of the clinic’s new status and said that such a medical center would help doctors diagnose cancer at very early stages and therefore make their treatment more efficient and reduce the number of cancer-related deaths.