Health care reform is killing more and more Russians – Rosstat

​ Rosstat has published new data on healthcare. After authorities across Russia laid off tens of thousands of doctors, there was an acute shortage of them. The waiting time for necessary hospitalization has doubled. The proportion of those who did not receive medical care at all also increased. Statistics show an increase in mortality and mistrust in medicine. People began to die en masse without receiving help.

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​Over the past three years, the proportion of those who are not satisfied with the quality of work of Russian medical institutions (30%) and those who do not expect the possibility of effective treatment (22%) has increased significantly. The number of those who believe that necessary treatment can only be obtained for a fee has doubled, citing a Rosstat report "Independent newspaper".

The share of those who sought medical help but did not receive it increased from 2,3% in 2011 to 3,3% in 2014. At the same time, about 36% of respondents indicated the lack of the necessary specialist as the reason for not receiving medical care. Another 20% reported that they were offered to turn to paid medicine for medical care. And more than 16% of respondents were unable to get help due to long queues for appointments.

Yesterday, the All-Russian Popular Front (ONF) also drew attention to the problem of queues in clinics, criticizing the low availability of outpatient care in the regions. ONF activists checked the work of 407 clinics in 71 regions of the Russian Federation. It turned out that the waiting time in queues to see a doctor ranges from 38 to 82 minutes, regardless of the severity of the patient’s condition.

This is due to the fact that during the “health care reform” the authorities laid off tens of thousands of doctors, paramedics and nurses throughout the country - there were physically not enough of them

As you know, in April the Accounts Chamber published a shocking report, according to the conclusions of which such a “reform” of healthcare only led to an increase in mortality, a decrease in the availability of medical services and a deterioration in the performance of state and municipal organizations. In particular, according to federal statistical observation data, 2014 thousand more patients died in medical institutions of the state and municipal healthcare systems in 17,9 than in 2013. In addition, in a number of regions, including those that recorded an increase in in-hospital mortality, last year there was an increase in the number of deaths at home.

According to NG experts, the program itself for optimizing medical care was actually aimed at reducing its accessibility for the population. “When inpatient medical care was repurposed into outpatient care, only the load on clinics increased, while inpatient care became significantly less,” recalls Alexander Sversky, president of the League of Patient Defenders.

As a result of optimization, the number of deaths at home and from diseases that previously, as a rule, did not lead to death, has increased, notes Pavel Vorobiev, deputy chairman of the Formulary Committee of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences. “People are increasingly dying from pneumonia. They are denied hospitalization, as a result of which they first end up in intensive care, and then to the next world,” explains Vorobiev.