Experts spoke about the chronic shortage of doctors in Russian clinics

Every year the problem will only get worse.

There is a catastrophic shortage of doctors in regional polyclinics. This was announced during a press conference at the Public News Service by the chairman of the International Union for the Aid and Support of Patients, Olga Vostrikova.

According to the expert, the pandemic has helped fill the country’s shortage of hospitals: in two years, we have opened many covidaria, and today they are retraining to receive citizens with other nosologies.

“However, the number of specialist doctors has decreased: during the pandemic, many doctors from the regions left for big cities for allowances. The outflow of doctors from the provinces to the big cities was simply colossal. And over the past year, many doctors from big cities have left Russia. Now our doctors are very actively offered work abroad on more favorable terms than at home. Therefore, there is now an acute shortage of qualified medical personnel throughout Russia.”

The shortage of doctors in the primary care (polyclinics) is also due to the fact that during the pandemic throughout the country, all doctors over 60 years of age began to be fired from polyclinics, and these medical institutions mainly employed older people. And while their rates are not filled. And the prospects that they will be filled in the coming years are very vague.

Polls show that half of the country’s medical graduates do not want to be doctors: they get jobs in research institutes or pharmaceutical companies. Therefore, experts predict that every year the problem of shortage of doctors will only get worse.

In addition, it is not the first time that experts have emphasized that the May 2012 presidential decrees on raising the salaries of medical workers have not actually been implemented in any region, although almost all have reported on their implementation. However, in fact, “increased” salaries are added up due to the fact that doctors work at 1.5-2 rates.

As a result, Vostrikova notes, today patient organizations are inundated with complaints about services provided by regional clinics. The SARS season is still in full swing, and people very often complain that they cannot wait for the doctor on call. In polyclinics, there are long queues for appointments with doctors, in which people spread the virus.

In second place are complaints about the inability to receive highly qualified medical care at the place of residence, which is why people have to go to Moscow or other large cities.

However, problem number three is that regional doctors, by hook or by crook, do not give a referral in form 057, which gives the right to treatment in another region. “Keep in mind that federal clinics accept without this referral, and anyone can come and get treatment according to indications,” says Olga Vostrikova.