Vivamedi clinic appeals to Penitentiary Service to evaluate “expediency” of ex-Pres. Saakashvili’s “further stay” in hospital

The civilian Vivamedi clinic in Georgia’s capital Tbilisi, where the country’s imprisoned former President Mikheil Saakashvili has been receiving treatment [since May 2022], on Wednesday appealed to the Special Penitentiary Service to evaluate the “expediency” of Saakashvili’s “further stay” in hospital.

According to Vivamedi’s statement, since last year’s October, the patient has been refusing the proposed medical treatment regimen [determined by the clinic’s doctors under current guidelines after a “full range” of medical examinations], especially if it may have a positive effect on his health.

Saakashvili has been expressing “distrust” towards the medical staff [by refusing treatment] and has only consented to symptomatic treatment that will be possible in “any other [medical] institution”, the clinic stated, stressing under medical ethics,  doctors cannot “forcefully treat anyone”.

Vivamedi has been “undeservedly” discredited [referring to the claims that the clinic allegedly does not or cannot treat the former President], which is “categorically unacceptable”, the statement read.

Saakashvili was transferred from the No. 12 Prison in the city of Rustavi to the civilian clinic Vivamedi in the capital Tbilisi in May 2022, following an offer for the transfer from the justice ministry, made after demands on the matter from the former president’s medical team and a part of political opposition.

The former President, who has Ukrainian citizenship and held a public post in the country, was arrested on return to Georgia in October 2021 and has been serving a six-year term for abuse of power in a case he had been convicted on. Three other cases against him are pending.