Boosted by international pledges totalling over $50 million, the city's health committee last week vowed to hold its course of "health reform."
In an annual health activities' evaluation session, committee head Valour Karyukin said the city had a number of constructive ideas to improve health services, but lack of finance was a big hindrance.
However, he added that this year was promising because a package of credits, including DM45 million ($31 million) from the Hermes company, $21 million from the World Bank and DM15 million ($10.3 million) from the Dresdner Bank, which would be spent to buy new medical equipment, was already underway.
It will be added to about 900 billion roubles ($192 million) expected from the city's budget, 60% of what he said the health committee actually needs.
Last year, according to Mr Karyukin, his committee failed to receive 41 billion roubles ($8.7 million) from the city's financial committee, 7% of the passed health budget.
He said that despite the gap, the city's health sector boasted a remarkable success.
He pointed out the launching of home-doctors' services in the city, extension of the unique adult infectious disease hospital in Botkin, the opening of an infectious disease hospital for children and the installation of modern equipment in other hospitals as just a few of the achievements gained last year.
Mr Karyukin assured the health staff that there would be no more layoffs this year, as the manpower situation stabilized last year.
Though four city hospitals will be closed for major repair this year, the 3,000 staff members will be shifted to other hospitals.
One of them is the stomatological hospital Number 10, whose staff and patients will be transferred to hospital Number 23 following the completion of an eight-year period of repair in December.
The promising news came on the heels of scandal as last year ended bitterly for Mr Karyukin's administration.
The medical Trade Unionists voted "no confidence" to the health committee at the end of last year, accusing it of financial mismanagement.
While a commission to probe the committee's financial matters was launched by the Mayor's Office, Mr Karyukin told journalists, "Of course, they found some violations, but there was no criminal elements in them."
He added, "Knowing that there is always a lot of noise where money is involved, I asked the mayor to relieve me from this duty in September, but to no avail."
Mr Karyukin denied that there was any negligence involved in the death of 12-year-old Sasha Chekerez, who burned to death in a decompression chamber while receiving treatment for kidney failure at the Pediatric Academy.
"There was no violation from any staff member's side," Mr Karyukin said.
However, he insisted the investigation team has not finalized its work.
While unwilling to make any conclusion regarding the dead boy's case, Mr Karyukin, who is a medical doctor by profession, said there were signs that some politicians were taking advantage of the negative side of the health sector to further their political ambitions.
He declined to give examples.