An Order was issued to “HAPPYSMILE” Company; the Doctor was subjected to Administrative Responsibility: Success Story of Haytnir.am
The website Haytnir.am was launched in 2023, and provides an opportunity for citizens to report openly and anonymously the corruption and other cases that they are aware of. This platform, which is operated by the Armenian Lawyers’ Association, is already receiving alerts and some of those alerts already have solutions.
On 26 February, citizen Ms Hasmik Akskalyan reported through the platform, about a violation by the "HAPPYSMILE" Limited Liability Company, namely against the Ms Hasmik Simonyan, the Director of the Company, and Mr. Hayk Bakhshyan, dentist, maxillofacial and plastic surgeon, of the Company’s dental clinic.
The citizen reported the following. "Is the medical card, which the "HAPPYSMILE" Limited Liability Company provided to me, Hasmik Akskalyan, considered in accordance with the standards of the form and requirements of the medical cards established by the authorized body in the healthcare sector of the Republic of Armenia or not? Including the fact that the card lacks records of its opening and closing dates because there is only one date indicated in the card, that is 17.01.20. And this, despite the fact that the maxillofacial and plastic surgeon of the dental clinic of "HAPPYSMILE" LLC, dentist Hayk Bakhshyan provided me with dental services in the said dental clinic from December 2019 until 2022.
Based on the aforesaid I request to initiate an appropriate legal process within the scope of the powers of the RA Health and Labor Inspection Authority as defined by the RA legislation, regarding the violations committed by Hasmik Simonyan, the Director of the "HAPPYSMILE" Limited Liability Company, and Hayk Bakhshyan, dentist, maxillofacial and plastic surgeon of the dental clinic of the same LLC, regarding the violations committed in the process of conducting and control of my, Hasmik Akskalyan's, medical card. I also ask you to provide me with a copy of the normative act or a link to it, by which the authorized body of the RA Healthcare sector determined the standards of form and requirements for the medical cards of patients. The Armenian Lawyers Association, which operates the Haytnir.am website, immediately began to address the report, studied the legislation and sent a letter to the Health and Labor Inspection Body about the issue. The response of the Inspection Body was received on 2 April. Deputy Head of the Inspection Body Ms Taguhi Hakobyan reported that a proceeding was initiated on the issues raised on 4 March, as a result of an inspection carried out in the period of 12 to 14 March, it was established that the company does not keep records of patients for paid services, which violated the law, as well as the requirements established by order of the Minister of Health. The company also does not maintain dental record cards for adult patients in the form established by law, which is also a violation of the requirements provided for by law. On 28 March 2024, the Health and Labor Inspection Body issued an order to the company to eliminate the identified violations, and Dr. Hayk Bakhshyan was subjected to administrative responsibility.
The overall objective of the Haytnir.am online whistleblowing platform is to promote the fight against corruption in Armenia, to get public support in the fight against corruption, to support the improvement of the whistleblowing system, to contribute to the change of the legal thinking and culture formed among the public in Armenia regarding whistleblowers, striving to create a positive and demanding image of the whistleblower as a citizen of Armenia.
Haytnir.am platform (website) is an online platform to quickly respond to information regarding any corruption risk, an incident of a corrupt nature, a conflict of interest by a public servant, or an apparent violation of a code of conduct, or incompatibility requirement, or other restriction, or declaration, or other apparent violations, or any of the above-mentioned cases information by the whistleblower, and directing this information to competent authorities for examination.
A high level of protection (security) of submitted applications is provided here. A combination of programs encodes the information presented and therefore protects it from outside interference.
Applicants may also report anonymously the information regarding the above-mentioned alleged offenses or reasonable suspicions of such offences.
The photo of the clinic's location in Yerevan is sourced from the Internet. The photo of Doctor Hayk Bakhshyan is obtained from Medway.am. The photo of Hasmik Akskalyan is sourced from a personal archive.