“Now, in order to get the medicine, we will have to go to the district center and return. This trip for medicines costs 200 rubles. And with roads like ours, you will die seven times and rise again six times, that’s what the residents of a small village near Volgograd say. Almost the same situation is developing in Bashkiria. Thousands of people have already come out to people’s gatherings on the streets there. The whole reason is the optimization of the healthcare system, which is carried out in the regions.
«Wait, they may come to you»
Residents of the village of Yerzovka, which is located 8 kilometers from Volgograd, are outraged: they were left without an ambulance. The local Yerzovskaya outpatient clinic served the settlement and nearby settlements. The ambulance had its own phone number, and there was always a paramedic at the station. And people came by themselves, even if they couldn’t wait for the doctors.
“Our last hope for life was taken away from us. Now an ambulance has been taken away from us, which provided 4 settlements: Yerzovka, Orlovka, Vinnovka and Kamenka, says the yerzovchankaTatiana Murashko. — And instead of our ambulance number, we have to call 112, they will accept our call there, transfer it to the Settlement (district center), and only from there will the car arrive. Is this how long it will take if the count is in minutes?»
Residents of Yerzovka are outraged by the reorganization of medical care. Photo: AIF/Nadezhda Kuzmina
Recently, without waiting for an ambulance, a local resident died. Relatives called him an ambulance at 22:15. Two hours later, when the medics arrived, the Yerzov resident was already dead.
«I also called an ambulance to my mom. She was suffocating, — says a resident of the village of Yerzovka Oleg. — While my call was registered, while the information was transmitted… After the words “wait,” they may come to you.”.. I called a paid ambulance from Volgograd. We got to the 25th hospital in Volgograd, and there we were already admitted to the emergency room. How can this be?»
It is the organization of ambulance calls that residents blame for their troubles. Instead of several cars, there was one at the substation, and even that one was on call all the time. A brigade stationed in Yerzovka can be sent to any district of the Volgograd region. And while it is absent, more than 8000 residents actually remain without an ambulance.
It is now impossible to get through to the local branch by direct number. Photo: AIF/Nadezhda Kuzmina
“You will die seven times and rise again six times”
The local outpatient clinic does not have its own car to drive on administrative matters: to take tests and PCR tests to the district center of Gorodishche. Unlike Volgograd, it is 30 kilometers away. Outpatient doctors do not know how to get to their patients in remote areas of the area entrusted to them now. It is 15 kilometers to the serviced Orlovka, almost 10 to Vinnovka. It is hardly possible to visit all those in need of medical care at home. There was no such car before. The ambulance coped with everything.
Residents of the village went to the gathering. Photo: AIF/Nadezhda Kuzmina
“PCR tests have been done for more than a week,” locals say. Now, in order to get the medicine, we will have to go to the Settlement and return. This trip for medicines costs 200 rubles. And with such roads as we have to the Settlement, you will die seven times and rise again six times.
Doctors reacted to the spontaneous gathering of local residents, which they announced in their village group on social networks. To the outraged citizens came out the head of the Yerzovskaya outpatient clinic Lola Atokhodzhayevaand the chief physician of the State Medical Institution “Gorodishchenskaya CRH”Oleg Vakhrushev.
The head of the Yerzovskaya outpatient clinic, Lola Atokhodzhayeva, and the head physician of the State Medical Institution “Gorodishchenskaya CRH” Oleg Vakhrushev. Photo: AIF/Nadezhda Kuzmina
“I now need to pick up a person so that the paramedic is at the substation around the clock,” says Oleg Vakhrushev. — I can’t tell you when this person will appear. I have been working here for six years and was able to pick up only 4 people from the average staff. But there won’t be a second ambulance here anymore, it’s too big a financial cost.”
“You are condemning them to certain death”
Optimization in the healthcare sector hits all regions of the country. Somewhere, as in Yerzovka, ambulances are being cleaned, despite the increasing pace of the pandemic. And in Bashkiria, people are afraid to be left without their village hospital at all.
In the village of Pribelsky, Karmaskalinsky district, local residents are fighting for the only hospital in the village. If the medical facility is closed, they will have to travel 30 kilometers to the district center.
Information about the closure appeared on the Internet and almost all residents of the village took to the streets.
“If they close it now, where will I go?! — told Bash.news a resident of the village of Pribelsky Lyudmila. — Every month it takes three or four days to get the medicine.».
The situation in the cities is no better. In Bashkir Uchals, residents are also protesting against optimization. Here they want to merge the Central City Hospital with the medical institutions of the city of Beloretsk. As part of the optimization, maternity and emergency stroke therapy departments, as well as a laboratory, a morgue and an ambulance are being transferred there. People are sure that such a reorganization will primarily affect patients and medical personnel.
People’s gathering in Uchaly. Photo: provided by the Bashkir branch of the trade union “Action”
“There is a terrible road between Uchaly and Beloretsk. Two days ago, the first snow fell, and there was already a traffic collapse. And it happens all the time with the onset of winter,” people told reporters. — How can patients in need of emergency care be sent there on such a road? After all, you are condemning them to certain death!»
Today there are actually two therapists left in the Hospitals. They’ve been waiting for an ambulance for hours.
“Lezginka in a minefield”
“Optimization of healthcare, as they say, “hits the squares” indiscriminately, sometimes causing irreparable harm, which can be extremely difficult or even impossible to fix. The last drop seems to have fallen into the cup of patience of the residents of Uchaly. Citizens declared a peaceful gathering to show that they are not ready to put up and silently observe how they have to overcome significant difficulties in the geographical conditions of the Trans-Urals in order to receive normal medical care,” says Coordinator of the Trade Union of Healthcare workers “Action” in the Republic of Bashkortostan Anton Orlov. — Optimization, if in one word. Failures in organizing citizens to receive affordable and high-quality medical care, as prescribed by the Constitution and FZ-323.
Outpatient clinic of the Yerzovsky settlement of the Gorodishchensky district of the Volgograd region. Photo: AIF/Nadezhda Kuzmina
Expenses will be reduced
Recently, the government submitted to the State Duma a draft federal budget for 2022, according to Medvestnik.According to this document, the total federal budget expenditures on healthcare will decrease from 1.36 trillion rubles in 2021 (according to the budget list as of September 1) to 1.25 trillion rubles in 2022.
The share of expenditures of the Healthcare section in the budget in relation to GDP in 2022 will be 0.9%. The share of healthcare in the total volume of federal treasury expenditures will also decrease (from 5.8% in 2021 to 5.3% in 2022). In subsequent years, healthcare spending will only decrease. At the same time, spending on national security and law enforcement will increase by 17%.
Most of all, the costs of the federal project “Providing medical organizations of the healthcare system with qualified personnel” will decrease by 64%, from 3.3 billion to 1.2 billion rubles.
By 33%, from 8.1 billion to 5.5 billion rubles, the costs of the project “Development of the primary health care system” will be reduced.
