Patients named the main complaints against Russian medicine

To understand how satisfied Russians are with the quality and availability of our free medicine, 1,700 people from 81 regions were surveyed. It turned out that over the past three years, the top problems that people encounter when trying to get help under a compulsory medical insurance policy have remained unchanged.

Despite electronic recording, patients still most often complain that they have to wait for a long time at the doctor’s office.

In second place is either the absence of the required specialist in the clinic, or the inability to make an appointment with him. This time, 85% and 84% of respondents spoke about these problems, and in the past – 90% and 85%, respectively.

Respondents talked about the impossibility of getting all the necessary services in one place; a long wait (more than two weeks) to see a specialist after making an appointment; that it is very difficult to reach the clinic to make an examination, appointment or obtain background information; that instrumental studies (X-ray, MRI, CT, ultrasound) have to wait for months; that doctors do not give clear explanations about the state of health.

“In the structure of assistance provided by insurance representatives in the provision of medical care, a third of cases, and this is more than 9 million per year, are assistance to patients, including making an appointment with a doctor,” noted Dmitry Kuznetsov, vice-president of the All-Russian Union of Insurers.

If we talk about outpatient care, then, according to the study, only 2% of respondents did not encounter problems when receiving it. Things are much better in hospitals: over the past three years, almost 33% of Russians have not experienced any difficulties in receiving help there.

And in federally subordinate hospitals, the number of satisfied people increased by 13% over the year, and by 18% over two years. This year, 55% of patients were satisfied with the quality of medical care provided in regional and municipal hospitals, which is 3% higher than last year and 13% higher than in 2021.

Patients say that the main problem in hospitals is purchasing medications prescribed by a doctor during treatment at their own expense. But still, slightly fewer respondents spoke about this now than a year ago (39.4% versus 45% in 2022).

More than 72% of survey participants expressed the need for independent control over the provision of medical care in the compulsory medical insurance system.

Today, the functions of such control are assigned to medical insurance organizations (HIOs), whose activities are known to 82% of patients (last year, such awareness was 77%). In case of violation of the rights to free medical care, 30% of respondents turn to the health insurance service, and 34% try to resolve the situation through the management of the medical organization.

Patients turn to other authorities to protect their rights much less often (from 2.7% to 21.5%). And yet, 14.1% of respondents mistakenly assume that one can contact a health care provider to reimburse a patient’s expenses for paid medical services, 4.9% – to receive a voucher for sanatorium-resort treatment, 2.7% – to make a diagnosis, 2. 6% – for replacing one preferential drug in a prescription with another.

“Despite the fact that the overall satisfaction of patients with medical care remained at the level of last year, some things have changed for the better. For example, in terms of the work of the ambulance – this is evident from the assessments of patients and doctors. Digital insurance, telemedicine make care more accessible, but for now, these services are largely the privilege of residents of the capital and large regional centers,” says co-chairman of the All-Russian Union of Patients Yuri Zhulev.

By the way, 30.6% of patients said that they use electronic medical records, and 15.2% use electronic medical policies.

Judging by the survey data, the doctor’s house call service has also begun to work better. This year, 48% of patients reported problems when calling a doctor from the clinic to their home, compared to 57% this year.

Recently, there has been more and more talk about the importance of trust between doctor and patient, but, as it turned out, only half of those surveyed (48.8%) are more or less satisfied with the attitude of doctors, nurses, receptionists and orderlies. Almost every fifth (18.4%) noted that they were dissatisfied with the way they were treated in clinics and hospitals. If we talk about hospitals, 32% of respondents complained about inappropriate behavior of health workers this year (last year the figure was 38%).

In general, the share of respondents satisfied with compulsory medical insurance services, when comparing the indicators of 2023 with the indicators of the “pandemic” year of 2021, increased by 13.9% and amounted to about 40%.

It is curious that with such a level of dissatisfaction with the state medical care system, 4% of study participants admitted: they would never turn to doctors for paid medical services, 22% are ready to use them only in an emergency, and another 20% will turn to them if there is a complete absence of a free alternative , then when the necessary procedures or examinations can only be completed for a fee (in 2022, 26.4% answered this way).

In addition, patients reported that their rights are also violated in private medical clinics. 36% of citizens who applied for paid medical services encountered similar situations.

The All-Russian Union of Patients has slightly different statistics on requests: During the period from January 1 to September 30, 2023, the VSP hotline received 923 requests from citizens with complaints about the quality of medical care, of which only 40% were considered justified.

Compared to 2022, the structure of complaints has not changed. Complaints about irregularities in drug supply come first. Much less frequently, people complain about unreasonable refusal to provide medical care, unreasonable exceeding of established waiting periods for medical care, violation of the right to receive information about their health status, and unreasonable demands (and/or collection) of money for medical services.