New head of Russia's health watchdog appointed

Nikolai Yurgel has been appointed as the new head of Russia's service overseeing healthcare and social development, the watchdog's press office said Sunday.

MOSCOW, March 11 (RIA Novosti) - Nikolai Yurgel has been appointed as the new head of Russia's service overseeing healthcare and social development, the watchdog's press office said Sunday.

Ramil Khabriyev, the former head of the Federal Agency for the Oversight of Public Health and Social Affairs, a health watchdog accountable to the Health and Social Development Ministry, was dismissed March 5 over the deficit of prescription drugs.

Yurgel previously worked as the head of the health watchdog's department for Moscow and the Moscow Region, the press office said.

Since the notorious law replacing benefits with financial compensation came into force in 2005, many cheap prescription drugs, or drugs intended for free distribution among war veterans and disabled people, have almost disappeared from drugstores.

In late February, President Vladimir Putin said he was unhappy with the prescription drug situation and demanded that the drug deficit be covered, adding that the problems could and should have been foreseen.