Putin opened cancer centers in Tomsk, Ufa and Yakutsk via video link – Kommersant

Russian President Vladimir Putin opened new oncology centers in Bashkiria, Yakutia and the Tomsk region via video link. The conference was held at the Tula Oncology Center, where the head of state came as part of a trip to the region.

“This is another step towards increasing the availability and effectiveness of such assistance, and therefore saving the lives and health of our citizens,” said Vladimir Putin (quoted by website Kremlin).

He said that much of the medical equipment in the new centers was made in Russia. The fight against cancer, as the president added, remains one of the main issues in the healthcare system. In 2018, a federal project to combat oncology was formed, for which more than 960 billion rubles were allocated, Mr. Putin recalled.

Russian Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said at the conference that over the past five years, the speed and quality of diagnosis of the disease has improved significantly, and doctors detect more than 60% of tumors at stages I-II. In 2023, he said, 90 million people underwent preventive examinations.

During a trip to Tula, Vladimir Putin inspected the oncology clinic, which opened in December 2023. Doctors told the president that the number of patients with oncology is increasing annually by 5%, and in terms of incidence, the Tula region exceeds the Russian average by about 15–20%.

Hospital staff also reported that the cancer center has a capacity of 340 patients. People come to work at the dispensary, including from other regions. Employees, according to acting chief physician Dmitry Istomin, are provided with cottages or service apartments, and the salary of doctors is almost 100 thousand rubles, nursing staff – 50 thousand rubles.

Vladimir Putin also agreed to visit one of the cancer center employees. The President was invited to a cottage that is given to doctors. “Everything was so unplanned that Putin, while visiting, asked the hostess for permission if he could have some tea,” he wrote in Telegram channel VGTRK journalist Pavel Zarubin. He also published a video with the president from the home of an employee of the cancer center.

At the end of January, Vladimir Putin also visited a cancer center in the Kaliningrad region. The head of state called the clinic “an entire city” and noted that the new dispensary will allow “not to drive people anywhere” to receive medical care.

Read more about Putin’s trip to Kaliningrad in the Kommersant article “With pompoms and edgings”.