Optimization? Destruction of medicine!
Below is the text of an open letter to representatives of regional authorities with a request to prevent the collapse of the Angarsk branch of the OGBUZ "Irkutsk Regional Neuropsychiatric Dispensary." The letter was written by a former employee of the institution, who has devoted a decade to his difficult profession. I have to admit that I have no hope that high-ranking officials will stop the process of "optimization" of medicine, which affects hundreds of workers and tens of thousands of citizens. But…
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I, Fedotenko Vera Evgenievna, is the former head doctor of the city psychiatric hospital, who gave the psychiatric service of the city of Angarsk 60 years, worked as the head doctor for 27 years, the head of the dispensary for 13 years, and later the head of the organizational and methodological department and outpatient reception of socially dangerous patients. Since June 2018, I stopped working, but I continue to live the life of the hospital staff and cannot reconcile with how the psychiatric and narcological services of our city are being destroyed.
I am not addressing you to tell the glorious history the establishment of the psychiatric service of the city of Angarsk. I want to defend this service. In defense of doctors, nurses, paramedical and other personnel. And of course, in defense of people in need of psychiatric and drug treatment. I don’t think you know anything about healthcare optimization. I want to believe that you are not one of those people who know and will sit back. After all, trouble lies in wait for us all ...
The psychiatric service of the city of Angarsk appeared in September back in 1959, when 15 beds were opened at the Angarsk city medical association. And two years later a neuropsychiatric dispensary was organized. Male and female departments of 60 beds are open. Medical and production workshops started, and outpatients were organized. The preparation and renovation of buildings for the hospital was a common cause. Heads of the construction department, a petrochemical plant, and OKBA helped doctors. In 1983, the clinic was transformed into an Angara psychiatric hospital. In 1984, a children's psychiatric service was organized. In 1995 - the department of nursing care. In 2000 - a medical and psychological center for the provision of psychotherapeutic and psychoprophylactic care. And in 2001, we, the first in the region and one of the first in the country, began to help people with addictions in a drug rehabilitation center.
So, gradually, the Angara Psychiatric Hospital developed and strengthened, withstood during the difficult years of perestroika, the collapse of the country and the dashing 90s and turned into the largest medical institution with a hospital for 320 beds and 2 clinics with a capacity of 200 visits. Our hospital was an advanced institution where the most modern methods of diagnosis, treatment and prevention were introduced. And has always been distinguished by the high quality of the assistance provided.
It so happened that for a year and a half the head doctor was not in the hospital, and, despite this, a highly professional and well-coordinated team performed the tasks assigned to it, providing the necessary psychiatric, narcological, psychotherapeutic and psychological help to the residents of the city of Angarsk and the surrounding areas of the region.
There were no significant comments on the work of the Angarsk Psychiatric Hospital, but the “optimization” of the psychiatric service came like a bolt from the blue - and our hospital, along with five other psychiatric hospitals in the region, was added to the Irkutsk Psychoneurological Dispensary.
Thanks to this reorganization, the state of affairs in the Angara branch worsened, and many negative aspects arose. First of all, 75 round-the-clock beds were reduced, including a drug rehabilitation center, beds in the former department of nursing care (now the general psychiatric unit No. 4), in almost all inpatient departments. It is not clear to me on the basis of what orders and decisions such a huge reduction in the number of beds has been carried out. Or in our city has fewer alcoholics and drug addicts? Or maybe all patients with severe mental illnesses are covered by the necessary medical, social and rehabilitation measures, the problem of their treatment, living not to the detriment of relatives and neighbors has been resolved? Only 15 round-the-clock beds were left in the border state unit (now the general psychiatric unit No. 3). But now the country has developed an unfavorable socio-economic situation, we are on the verge of a crisis. The number of patients with depression, anxiety and psychosomatic disorders, and suicides is increasing and will continue to grow. In their condition, they need to be withdrawn from a traumatic situation, a quiet, pacifying, comfortable stay. This cannot be ensured in an inpatient setting. And what about patients who have lost housing, social connections? With such a reduction in beds, lack of space or contraindications for placement in psychoneurological boarding schools, these people will be on the street and could potentially become victims or participants in crimes. Look at the development of the situation in the USA, where the state psychiatric and drug treatment service has been practically destroyed. Now people with severe mental disorders are either in overcrowded prisons, or they lead a miserable existence on the streets, including carriers of infections. The current pandemic has shown this particularly clearly. Is this the way our healthcare needs to develop?
Along with this there is a reduction in staff, leaving employees, including professionals. Doctors invited from other regions did not want to get a job at the hospital. They were not satisfied with the lack of a decent wage guarantee. Young doctors also do not come to work in the hospital. Financing decreased in all respects. Almost stopped repairs. There were interruptions in the supply of medicines, not even expensive, but the most vital. The equipment is not being repaired. There were problems with transport. There is no stability in wages, they do not fully pay for processing, so a number of doctors express their intention to quit.
Made a mistake !!! To merge institutions, including one as large as the Angara Psychiatric Hospital, into a clumsy, impenetrable, hard-to-manage hulk ...
I consider the current situation with the state of the psychiatric and narcological services in the city of Angarsk intolerant, not in need of optimization, but proper reform. Therefore, I ask you to return the independence of the Angara Psychiatric Hospital as soon as possible with the return of the hospital bed and its rational distribution in accordance with the current needs of the population for affordable and high-quality medical care, to ensure adequate funding for psychiatric and narcological assistance, which will improve the material and technical base, lead the departments in proper condition for a comfortable stay of patients and eliminate the shortage of doctors.
Psychiatry and narcology are not areas where you can save. Their destruction subsequently comes with heavy economic losses, a demographic catastrophe and even the destruction of the country.
Save our hospital !!!
Health Excellence
Honored Doctor of Russia,
honorary citizen of the city of Angarsk
V. E. Fedotenko
Honored Doctor of Russia,
honorary citizen of the city of Angarsk
V. E. Fedotenko
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