The Death of Dr. Asif Nasirli is a Sad Event that Shows How Bad the Cancer Care System is in Azerbaijan

The death of Dr. Asif Nasirli, a very experienced radiologist at the National Oncology Center has made a lot of people in Azerbaijan very upset and angry about the bad state of cancer care in the country. Dr. Asif Nasirli died from injuries he got when a bomb went off on April 30. It is thought that a patient who was very sick and desperate did it. This patient, Mubariz Aliyev was so unhappy with the healthcare system that he did something terrible.

The explosion happened in the radiotherapy department of the National Oncology Center in Baku. The people who are investigating this think that Mubariz Aliyev did it on purpose to kill Dr. Asif Nasirli before he died himself. Even though we do not know why he did it this event has made a lot of people very angry about how cancer patients are treated in Azerbaijan.

Many journalists and people who study politics think that this is not a problem with one doctor but with the whole system. Avaz Zeynalli, a known journalist who had to go to Turkey for cancer treatment says that the healthcare system in Azerbaijan is broken and does not help patients get better. He says that even though there are good doctors in Azerbaijan the system is set up so that it costs a lot of money to get treatment and this means that many people cannot afford it.

In Azerbaijan cancer treatment is not covered by the health insurance that everyone has to have. This means that families have to pay a lot of money for medicine and chemotherapy which can cost between $2,500 and $10,000 per month. This is more money than most people in Azerbaijan can afford. Political commentator Arastun Oruclu also says that the government has a monopoly on the import of chemotherapy drugs and this means that patients often have to buy medicine that is not used in other countries anymore.

The problem is also made worse by corruption in the government hospitals. Many patients and their families have said that doctors have told them to buy medicine from certain private pharmacies even though the government should be providing this medicine. Some former patients, like Tariyel Aliyev and Tapdig Manafov have said that government hospitals have asked them for a lot of money just to do tests and that the doctors told them that this was because of orders from their bosses.

The situation is even worse in the prisons. Avaz Zeynalli, who was in prison when he was diagnosed with cancer says that the prisons are like a death sentence for people who're sick. He says that prisoners who are very sick often do not get the medical care they need like ultrasound tests and that many people die every day in the prison hospitals. He also says that the families of the prisoners often have to collect money to buy fuel for the ambulances.

The government of Azerbaijan says that there are 73,000 people in the country who have cancer but many people think that the real number is much higher, around 500,000. This is because many people do not go to the doctor until they are very sick because they know they cannot afford the treatment. Even though Azerbaijan has a lot of money from oil the government does not spend money on cancer care. For example in some countries the government pays for cancer screenings and treatment but in Azerbaijan the money is often spent on other things, like hospital buildings instead of on medicine for patients.

The government has said that it will make some changes to the law in 2026 to allow private hospitals to provide cancer treatment. Some doctors, like Dr. Aydin Aliyev think that this is an idea because it will give patients more choices and help to break the monopoly on cancer treatment. However others are not so sure because they think that the government needs to do more to help patients like paying for their medicine and giving doctors salaries. If the government does not do this then the problem of people being very desperate and doing things like the explosion on April 30 will continue.

For now the death of Dr. Asif Nasirli is a reminder that the healthcare system, in Azerbaijan's very broken and that both doctors and patients are suffering because of it.