Davit Sergeenko Explained

Davit Sergeenko
Office:Adviser to the Prime minister of Georgia
Primeminister:Giorgi Gakharia
Term Start:8 September 2019
Primeminister1:Mamuka Bakhtadze
Term Start1:18 June 2019
Term End1:3 September 2019
Office2:Minister of Internally Displaced Persons from the Occupied Territories, Health, Labour and Social Affairs
President2:Giorgi Margvelashvili
Salome Zourabichvili
Primeminister2:Mamuka Bakhtadze
Term Start2:14 July 2018
Term End2:18 June 2019
Predecessor2:Position established
Successor2:Ekaterine Tikaradze
Office3:Minister of Health, Labour, and Social Affairs
Term Start3:25 October 2012
Term End3:14 July 2018
Predecessor3:Zurab Tchiaberashvili
Successor3:Position abolished
Primeminister3:Bidzina Ivanishvili
Irakli Garibashvili
Giorgi Kvirikashvili
Mamuka Bakhtadze
Office4:Member of the Parliament of Georgia
Term Start4:11 December 2020
Term End4:16 November 2023[1]
Birth Date:25 September 1963
Birth Place:Tbilisi, Georgian SSR, Soviet Union
(Now Georgia)
Allegiance: Georgia
Branch:Medical Service, Georgian Air Force
Serviceyears:1992–1993
Spouse:Leila Migriauli
Children:Two daughters
Party:Georgian Dream
Alma Mater:Tbilisi State Medical Institute
Moscow Institute for Continued Medical Education

Davit Sergeenko (Georgian: დავით სერგეენკო; born 25 September 1963) is a Georgian physician and healthcare administrator, serving as Georgia's Minister of Health, Labor, and Social Affairs since 25 October 2012. On 13 June 2018 he was named Minister of Internally Displaced Persons from the Occupied Territories, Accommodation and Refugees in the cabinet of Mamuka Bakhtadze.[2]

Early life and medical career

Sergeenko was born in Tbilisi, the capital of then-Soviet Georgia in 1963. He graduated from the Tbilisi State Medical Institute as a pediatrician in 1987 and the Moscow Institute for Continued Medical Education as an intensive care specialist in 1991. Returning to Georgia, he practiced neonatology in Sukhumi and Rustavi from 1987 to 1992. He then served in the Georgian Armed Forces as a physician for an air force regiment from 1992 to 1993 and as a chief of medical service at the State Department of Sports from 1995 to 1997. He worked as an ICU physician at the Jo Ann Medical Center in Tbilisi from 1997 to 2006 and a medical services manager at the MediClub-Georgia clinic from 2002 to 2006.[3] In 2006, he became Director General of a medical center in the provincial town of Sachkhere, funded by the billionaire tycoon Bidzina Ivanishvili, a Sachkhere native who had amassed his wealth in Russia in the 1990s.[4]

Government career

After Ivanishvili's Georgian Dream coalition won the October 2012 parliamentary election and subsequently formed the new government, Sergeenko was made Minister of Health, Labor, and Social Affairs in the cabinets of Ivanishvili and of his protégé and successor, Irakli Garibashvili.[5]

Sergeenko presided over the establishment of the government-funded Universal Health Care system in February 2013.[6] As the Georgian government's support to post-revolutionary Ukraine amid a brewing confrontation with Russia was reserved, Sergeenko was the only Georgian minister to have visited Kyiv in August 2014; he then oversaw Georgia's humanitarian aid, worth of about GEL 1 million (US$570,000), to Ukraine in September 2014.[7] [8] Sergeenko was also behind the controversial law adopted in August 2014, tightening the regulation of prescription drugs.[9] He also suggested, in May 2013, that Georgia might consider decriminalization of marijuana as part of the strategy to tackle on illicit drug-trafficking channels.[10]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: MPs Vote to Void Davit Sergeenko’s Mandate . 2023-11-16. Civil Georgia.
  2. Web site: დავით სერგეენკო . MOH . ka . 2018-07-19.
  3. Web site: Minister of Labour, Health and Social Affairs of Georgia: David Sergeenko. Ministry of Labour, Health and Social Affairs of Georgia. 30 December 2014.
  4. News: Ivanishvili's Incoming Cabinet. 30 December 2014. Civil Georgia. 16 October 2012. https://web.archive.org/web/20160304203018/http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=25355. 4 March 2016. dead.
  5. News: New PM Wins Confidence Vote. 30 December 2014. Civil Georgia. 20 November 2013. https://web.archive.org/web/20150321092824/http://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=26705. 21 March 2015. dead.
  6. News: Irakli Gharibashvili: "Health care has become accessible for everyone.". 30 December 2014. FactCheck. 3 February 2014.
  7. News: Jgharkava . Zaza . Georgian Government Shows Ukraine Two Faces . 30 December 2014 . Georgia Today . 731 . 4 September 2014 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20141231223428/http://georgiatoday.ge/article_details.php?id=12637 . 31 December 2014 .
  8. News: Georgia Sends Humanitarian Aid to Ukraine. 30 December 2014. Civil Georgia. 12 September 2014.
  9. News: Georgia tightens regulation of prescription drugs. 30 December 2014. Democracy & Freedom Watch. 14 August 2014.
  10. News: Rukhadze. Okropir. Synovitz. Ron. Georgia Considers Taking Softer Approach To Marijuana. 30 December 2014. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. 20 May 2013.