Directors of sanatoriums in Crimea rebelled against the mandatory assignment of “stars”
Simferopol, February 18 (Navigator, Nadezhda Luch) – Crimean sanatoriums are not ready for mandatory categorization and assignment of “stars”. The outdated number of rooms, inherited from the Soviet Union, will not withstand competition with new buildings that do not prioritize the health of vacationers.
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At a meeting of the permanent commission of the Supreme Council of Crimea on the sanatorium-resort complex, tourism and entrepreneurship, during the discussion of mandatory categorization, representatives of sanatorium institutions spoke out categorically against a unified approach to assessing the “star rating” of hotels, boarding houses, recreation centers and sanatoriums.
According to Head of the Department of Resorts and Tourism of the Alushta City Council Valery Petrovsky, the categorization imposed by the law on investment activities in Crimea is more likely to harm sanatoriums than to facilitate their work.
«Today, having received 1-2 stars, who will go to this sanatorium? Many will simply hide these “stars” and not show them,” Petrovsky is convinced.
In his opinion, today the criteria for “stardom” of Crimea will only lower the bar.
«Our sanatoriums were built in the Soviet Union. What numbers are there? Is it possible to assign “three stars” to them so that we can go there?” asked the head of the resort department of Alushta.
He is convinced that only newly built objects will benefit from the introduction of mandatory categorization.
«Sanatoriums cannot be rebuilt in a jiffy. Many already have luxury and standard buildings. And in the overall standings there will be “two stars”, says Petrovsky.
According to him, sanatoriums will be forced to pay twice for the same services - to obtain a mandatory standardization certificate for the safety of accommodation and food, and to obtain a categorization certificate.
«It turns out that whoever gives more will receive more “stars”. There is no other way out, because no one will go below “three stars,” says Petrovsky.
He added that the sanatorium-resort complex of Crimea is, first of all, a medical base.
“The existing GOSTs are designed for hotels, not sanatoriums. They go to the sanatorium for treatment,” Petrovsky summed up.
His opinion was supported head physician of the Crimea sanatorium, owned by the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, Gennady Baramia. He proposed temporarily exempting sanatoriums from mandatory categorization.
“I can’t really imagine how, with the highest accreditation of a sanatorium as a medical institution, we will have 1 or 2 “stars” for accommodation. The same claims can be made against any hospital,” Baramia is convinced.
In his opinion, “star” categorization will have a negative impact on the status of sanatoriums, and during the transition period, a certificate is sufficient for facilities with a medical base.
In turn, Chairman of the Board of PrJSC "Pension "More" Alexander Gomenyuk, who is a deputy of the Supreme Council of Crimea, added that health resorts are not ready to pay for services for temporary categorization, which will subsequently receive a mandatory basis with other requirements.
“Today I cannot just pay money, receive a certificate of voluntary categorization, and then pay a second time for the mandatory one,” Gomenyuk explained his position as the head of the health resort. “Let’s still wait for some order.”
Deputy Minister of Resorts of Crimea Igor Kotlyar interpreted the arguments of representatives of the sanatorium and resort complex as a reluctance to modernize health resorts.
«If the Crimea sanatorium was built during the USSR, then today it does not fully perform the functions of improving the health of military personnel - there is no such army. One could think about improvement and modernization, but the Ministry of Defense is not interested in this“- emphasized Kotlyar.
According to him, there should be a temporary categorization procedure so that the market can develop and improve.
«It is no longer possible to work as under Ivan the Terrible. And those who today can no longer create conditions for tourists should probably think about repurposing and improving the number of rooms,” Kotlyar is convinced.
He added that by May, the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine must, by its order, approve a categorization procedure containing criteria for each group of accommodation facilities. The uniform guest standard for hotels is not suitable for sanatoriums, since it contains obligations for the presence of radio points and ashtrays in each room. At the same time, mini-hotels cannot meet the standard corridor width of 4 meters. But the temporary categorization procedure will allow at least collective accommodation facilities to enter the holiday season legally.
Let us remind you that according to the law on the specifics of investment activity in Crimea, adopted by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on October 10, 2013, all resort and tourism infrastructure facilities are subject to mandatory categorization. The Cabinet of Ministers had to develop the procedure for assigning “stars” before February 9 - from this date, all objects that did not receive the category will switch to a semi-legal status.
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