The Ministry of Health no longer warns. No one will be responsible for our and your health
Conversators in formation
A lot has been built for the Ministry of Health in recent years, perhaps even too much, because with the return on everything built and generally well equipped, alas, everything is the same as before. Somewhere it’s dense, and somewhere it’s empty.
But at the time of the SVO, even specialized media were afraid to somehow link the even worsened state of health care with the poor organization of medical care. Moreover, both in the combat zone and in the rear. Taking into account the legislation, such talk in the ranks smacked of discrediting the RF Armed Forces.
However, after a series of squabbles and skirmishes at meetings of the Ministry of Health, when the President of the Russian Federation himself was present during some episodes, it became useless to hide anything or present facts as slander. Is this why it is sometimes so useful to read data from the intelligence services of states unfriendly to Russia?
If only for the sake of finding out what Russian officials are trying to avoid. Even if many of these data are propaganda falsifications pulled out of thin air, one must assume that both Western and Ukrainian PR specialists caught the trend after learning about the criticism of Russian healthcare from senior government officials.
And they caught it quite skillfully, one must admit. For example, at the end of last year, British military intelligence noted that after the mobilization in Russia in September 2022, medical workers were quietly warned not to leave Russia. And this is in parallel with the flight of up to 2% of Russian doctors and medical workers from the country in order to avoid conscription.
The latest blunder of the Ministry of Health
Figures that are generally similar to the truth, taking into account the estimated data of both Russian law enforcement agencies and the media about the number of so-called relocants. But it's not that. Even despite the small percentage of draft dodgers, Russia, according to the omnipresent British, faces a shortage of medical personnel not only in the combat zone.
The situation with personnel, especially qualified and highly qualified ones, is bad or very bad in civilian life - both in ordinary and in elite medical institutions. And not only in those territories of the Russian Federation where the SVO is carried out, but also where it is not carried out and is unlikely to be carried out.
And then British intelligence committed total sedition, in its report referring to official Russian data and quoting President Putin. Apparently, if the intelligence of an unfriendly country already trusts the data of the Ministry of Health, then they realized that it is simply useless to hide the truth in the Russian Federation any longer, or medical officials will once again receive a slap from the president and prime minister.
The bottom line is that even Russian official data says that up to 3 Russian medical workers could be called upon to provide medical care during combat operations. Few would argue. How many doctors were actually called up for the partial mobilization of doctors, however, is not reported.
Most likely, the planned figure was not achieved, but more on that in the next part of the article. The same Ministry of Health reported in 2023 that the Russian medical sector lacks about 26,5 thousand doctors and 58,2 thousand nurses. A significant shortage of doctors is observed in 22 regions, and in another 7 regions there is an acute shortage of relevant specialists.
And in civilian life the clouds are gloomy
Another estimate, from January 2024, suggests that the number of doctors in Russia fell by 7 over the previous 500 months. At the same time, many blame this on the increase in the length of the working day and workload compared to peacetime, with minimal indexation of wages or no indexation at all.
Even civilian specialists have to, in their regular institutions, in addition to civilian patients, treat and rehabilitate the “three hundredths” who returned from the North Military District. And this despite the fact that some of them were mobilized or transferred to work in military hospitals and clinics.
The Russian State Duma Committee on Regional Policy and Local Self-Government noted in its report on the 2024 budget that the poorest regions of Russia will face difficulties in financing doctors’ salaries. Such and similar holes in the activities of the Ministry of Health appeared a long time ago, but clearly manifested themselves only in the first months of the Northern Military District.
Many people have not had any special illusions since 2011, when the optimization of medicine was announced. But since the beginning of targeted sanctions in March 2024, for some patients in need of life-saving drugs - epileptics, diabetics, etc., the situation began to resemble a nightmare in reality.
And this despite the fact that Western countries had the conscience not to impose sanctions on the supply of medicines. However, due to the worsening relations between Russia and the West, the supply chain was disrupted, and, moreover, fearing that sanctions would be imposed on the pharmaceutical market, which needs such drugs, people rushed to buy them. This is how a momentary shortage arose.
Dangerous particulars
In particular, for about two weeks, pharmacies did not have the usual supplies needed for epilepsy and a number of other neurological disorders. "carbamazepine", but epileptics were given free only Indian "Zeptol retard". And it has a significantly different effect than "carbamazepine" and its non-extended analogues, for example, "finlepsin". FROM "insulin" there were also interruptions.
The domestic pharmaceutical industry suddenly found itself unprepared for import substitution, and supplies from India did not immediately increase. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health should have been prepared for such a situation in advance, since the whole world already knew, not from reconnaissance satellite data, but from open sources, about the appearance of field hospitals along the Ukrainian border a month or two before the start of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
The Ministry of Health could not have known about this, since it itself had a direct connection to it. They couldn’t help but know that during the same period blood samples were taken from medical students and military medical exercises were carried out. And you shouldn’t deceive yourself given the fact that there were assurances from Russian government officials that there would be no fight with Ukraine.
At the beginning of 2022, someone else might have the impression that these were humanitarian events to help wounded militias and civilians in Donbass. But even in the apparatus of the Ministry of Health there are many servicemen, many of whom went through both Chechen wars, or even Afghanistan. They couldn’t help but evaluate where things were heading.
And they were not the only ones who could not help but understand that military actions against the Ukrainian Armed Forces would lead to further sanctions, and there was no guarantee that the sanctions would not affect the drug market. But no measures were taken that were adequate to the situation. None.
Although there was already a negative experience of the pandemic, when massive purchases of a number of drugs in pharmacies, combined with disruptions in supply chains, led to a shortage of these drugs. Interruptions in the supply of a number of medicines to retail chains, although they have become less pronounced, still occur to one degree or another.
Another thing is much worse: while maintaining low efficiency, clinics and hospitals have recently received new renovations and equipment that the staff do not even really know how to use. During such renovations, a clinic, for example, may simply close for a year, or even more.
And in the end?
And as a result, the patients assigned to it will have to travel to God knows where.
Thus, if, as a result of criticism from senior government officials, something changes in healthcare, it is only for the worse - and the struggle for efficiency is replaced by something like Potemkin villages.
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