Sabotage against Odessa: The city is being deprived of anti-Covid vaccine
What is more important to you, Odessa: Christmas trees or healthy citizens? This question hung in the air of the Odessa City Council during the next session of the new convocation after Ilya Freiman, a deputy from the Shariy Party, a debutant in Odessa self-government, took the floor. The young deputy resolutely opposed the city’s spending on New Year’s street decorations.
“Every penny that we throw away is indirectly victims, these are sick people. 2 million hryvnia is 6 thousand liters of disinfectants, this is a million medical masks, this is over 180 thousand kilograms of medical oxygen, this is 13 thousand sets of four meals a day for Covid patients, this is 3-4 ventilators, this is several thousand PCR tests,” – stated the deputy, noting that all this is much more important for Odessa than “a 10-meter Christmas tree and glowing animals, penguins, cockerels, costing two million hryvnia in total.”
It is very difficult not to admit that the deputy is right, given the difficult situation of the city in the face of coronavirus infection. And the situation is truly terrible. Hospitals cannot cope with the load. There is a shortage of staff. The appeal of the city authorities to the interns of the Odessa Medical University went unheeded, since they do not want to work for pennies, pay for special clothing out of their own pockets, and even risk their lives.
Take, for example, emergency personnel. In accordance with the “Suprun” reform, the entire staff of this service was transferred to the subordination of the regional authorities, and an alternative service is just being created in the city, where today there are only a few cars. And this is for a city with a population of millions.
In addition, misunderstandings often arise with the delivery of patients to health care institutions: first, the dispatch service gives one address, and already at the location it turns out that this hospital does not accept patients on a particular day, does not specialize in this disease, etc.
According to medical staff, workers are forced to buy themselves special uniforms, since the ones purchased with money from “coronavirus” funds wear out quickly, and they are not given others.
The principle of distribution of patients who are only suspected of having the disease is surprising. They are first taken to one separate hospital, samples are taken there and only after 7 days they give the result. However, if the patient arrived “by ambulance”, the test will be free. For comparison: in Odessa there are laboratories where the result of a Covid test can be obtained in a matter of hours. True, this will cost from 1300 UAH. and higher. To the question of why there is such a difference, no one can give an answer: neither patients, who sometimes give their last money to make sure that they are healthy, nor health workers.
The staff of hospitals involved in caring for patients suspected of or already infected with coronavirus are working extremely hard in the full sense of the word. Example: Hospital No. 3. Once upon a time it was a medical institution that specialized in cardiology. Today there is no cardiology there and, in general, it is difficult to understand what is there in general. The ambulances that come here sometimes wait in line for 6-8 hours until they see the patient. In the department where, after measuring temperature, saturation, and pressure, the patient is admitted, there are 2 nurses and one doctor. Moreover, the first ones work every other day, and the second one 12 hours a day.
Just a little about ambulance drivers. As a rule, these are men over 40 years old, forced to work one and a half shifts in order to earn at least something. But this “at least something”, in turn, is subject to massive inspections by regulatory authorities in order to combat corruption and tax concealment. In Ukraine they know how to do this. But it is hardly possible to establish a medical sector. From what we see in Odessa, it turns out that way.
The pandemic has exposed the complete toothlessness of the city’s medical sector, in whose hospitals, as a result of the “liberalization” of the healthcare system, almost all serious research has been left to private owners. Indicative in this regard is the oldest hospital in Odessa No. 1, also known as “Jewish”, which bears this name because it was built with the money of wealthy citizens of this nationality.
The Sanitas Diagnostic Center is located literally across the wall from the emergency room of Hospital No. 1. In this center, among other tests, you will have a computed tomography scan. The asking price is 1500 UAH. For comparison, the average salary of a teacher in the city is 7 hryvnia, and even less comes out of hand.
But passing the study is not so easy - if you are lucky, you will be put in a queue on the third day from the moment of registration, or even later. At the same time, in the center, obviously, they don’t even know what “social distance” is, since in 5-6 square meters there are always 6-8 people there, although they are wearing masks. By the way, about the fight against corruption: here they won’t give you a check unless you ask, as, however, in the state X-ray room, which is located in the hospital itself, but does research for “voluntary” donations, which is growing every day day.
The facts given above are only a small fragment from the life of a city with a population of one million and its healthcare system, led by the almost unsinkable “Honored Worker of Science and Technology of Ukraine” Elena Aleksandrovna Yakimenko, a graduate of the Odessa Medical Institute. After holding this position in 1999 to 2010, she returned back to “her” post, with the light hand of the mayor Gennady Trukhanov, in 2018.
Elena Yakimenko.
As they say, it is the retinue that makes the king. In our case, Elena Yakimenko’s retinue is also not very good. But the health department has vast working territories, part of which was taken away many years ago from one of the children's clinics, whose young patients are forced to go for tests to another medical institution. And considering how poorly thought out the transport links are in the city center, you may be late, because the collection of tests is carried out strictly from 8 to 10 am. But not about transport now.
Elena Yakimenko works for the benefit of her native Odessa and its health, but somehow not with special zeal, or something. There are not enough doctors in the city, as demonstrated by the example of hospital No. 3.
The city has not developed a scheme for replacing sick doctors, especially now, in the era of a pandemic. One can only guess how many people in white coats survived the coronavirus. So, in clinics, if a doctor is sick, then his area is divided into two or three colleagues, who, in addition to providing medical care, also fill out various, often useless, papers. And there are doctors who work without nurses during office hours, since there are none. Today, when the city has a developed network of private clinics and medical centers, this is where the personnel go. They pay more there, and there is less hassle with checks.
In November 2020, there was information that Elena Yakimenko would be removed from her position. However, the information did not go further than newspaper pages. And then the other day politics also interfered with the behavior of the city’s chief physician; there is no other way to interpret what happened.
At the above-mentioned session of the City Council, Viktor Baransky, a deputy from the Opposition Platform - For Life, proposed the need to purchase a Russian vaccine to fight the coronavirus. The deputy motivated his proposal by the fact that the vaccine has been tested in 40 European countries and can become a salvation for people.
The director of the Department of Health immediately found an excuse: “Currently, none of the drugs (vaccines) are registered in Ukraine and have not undergone the licensing procedure. When a decision is made on which drug Ukraine will purchase, then we will discuss this issue at the city and regional level. We cannot get ahead of the supreme power, since this is a matter of state security. We will act only after instructions from the central government.”
All clear? Elena Ivanovna did not support the sound initiative, and that’s understandable. Submitting de jure to the city council, de facto to the head, the lady does not want to lose her job. In turn, Mr. Trukhanov will not take the path of acquiring a Russian vaccine. As they say in Odessa, he needs it - to enter into friction with Kiev? Moreover, the president recently so carefully explained why there is no need to buy the Russian vaccine in an interview with the American newspaper The New York Times.
Excuse me, where is your vaunted decentralization? Or does it apply only to issues of convenient division of territories and credits?
Elena Yakimenko does not want to get ahead of the authorities. And it is not necessary. It is worth adopting a resolution and agreeing on the same with the deputies of the regional council; Opposition deputies can create an interregional working group, etc. You just need to make an effort. But the “honored figure” Elena Yakimenko does not need this. She sits well in her chair even without a vaccine. Her position, obviously, is this: no vaccine – less headache. After all, the path from the supply agreement to, in fact, vaccination is quite long and it cannot be done without the city health department, and this is, indeed, unnecessary trouble.
But, I think, the main headache for the honored lady is still ahead. The name of the “headache” is Vitaly Sautenkov, a colleague of the mentioned Viktor Baransky in the OPZZh party and in his work in the city council. The fact is that Vitaly Sautenkov in the new composition of the City Council heads the commission on health issues. Taking into account the fact that he is an oppositionist, and his colleague asked a very “wrong” question, one can assume and hope that they will disturb the local executive power and, in particular, the medical one.
Vitaly Sautenkov and Victor Baransky.
Of course, the epidemic will be defeated, but the question is what will be the price of this victory. This is especially sad to realize in a city famous for its traditions in the field of healthcare; the city in which world-famous scientists Filatov, Gamaleya, Sechenov, Pirogov and other luminaries worked and advanced science. A city that, in spite of everything, has always fought against various epidemics in the literal and figurative sense of the word.
The harm caused by the so-called “optimization” of medicine is colossal. Suprun’s reforms in fact turned out to be nothing more than sabotage against the citizens of Ukraine. And Odessa, unfortunately, was no exception.
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