Guilty Of Compassion

2023 Author: Abraham Higgins | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-11-27 23:16

Russian security forces continue to fight with doctors and their patients: in recent days, it became known about two criminal cases on heavy "drug" articles. The real terms threaten the doctor who issued a seriously ill ampoule of anesthetic from his own supplies, and the mother of a seriously ill child who ordered a drug unregistered in the country for him by mail.

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Russian security forces continue to fight doctors and their patients: in recent days, it became known about two criminal cases under heavy anti-drug articles. The real terms are threatened by the doctor who issued a seriously ill ampoule of anesthetic from his own supplies, as well as the mother of a seriously ill child who ordered a drug unregistered in the country for him via the Internet.

Punishment for mercy

Oleg Baskakov, a gynecologist, is being tried in the town of Novaya Lyalya, Sverdlovsk Region. He faces eight years in prison for selling drugs. The doctor attempted to give an elderly patient with pain a prescription drug without entering it on the prescription card. Conventional analgesics did not help, and then Baskakov decided to use tramadol and sibazone. There was no one to take permission to use them, the time was late, and the doctor handed over to the nurse two unused ampoules of tramadol, which he had after the death of his mother. However, the head nurse took the medicine and called the police.

The city of Novaya Lyalya is located almost 300 kilometers from Yekaterinburg. There is only one hospital there, and Baskakov, an obstetrician-gynecologist, is also alone in it. He is under recognizance not to leave and continues to work in the hospital, although the atmosphere in the institution is tense.

“After this publicity, inspections of the hospital began. Here is an area for 20 thousand people. New Lyalya is a poor man; I always keep some of the medicines with me to help. I live right in the hospital. It is so convenient for me to provide assistance, and the ambulance is convenient. They brought someone, and I quickly did everything,”Oleg Baskakov commented on the situation.

The doctor's defenders petitioned to return the case to the prosecutor's office, because the investigation did not even order an examination of the patient's condition and did not ask whether she needed such drugs. But the court rejected the petition.

The grounds for the appointment of tramadol and sibazone are the main thing in this process. If they were, then this business cannot be qualified as sales. The next meeting will take place on 27 August. It is hoped that, after examining the medical documentation, the court will take into account the condition of Baskakov's patient, as well as the fact that the drugs were actually prescribed to the doctor's mother earlier, and he did not get them for the purpose of selling, which he is accused of. However, his lawyers do not give forecasts as to whether the doctor will be able to avoid a sentence.

Despite the fact that the problem of prescribing painkillers has been discussed for many years and a record number of documents facilitating the procedure have been adopted recently, it is still very bureaucratic. Doctors are afraid to put their signature: everyone remembers how it ended for Alevtina Khorinyak. (Let us remind you that ten years ago the Krasnoyarsk therapist was prosecuted for violation of the job description - the discharge of tramadol to a cancer patient.) Health workers are sure that in a similar situation, no one will intercede for them. This was confirmed by the story of Oleg Baskakov.

The situation will not change until the current legislation is changed, says Alexander Saversky, president of the League of Patients' Defenders. “Today, even painkillers are still inaccessible in our country,” the expert says. - Because in reality, the doctors do not have responsibility for the denial of necessary medication to the patient, but there is a responsibility for the distribution of drugs .

Mother is a "smuggler"

The case with the mother of a seriously ill boy who received a criminal case instead of the anticonvulsant drug Frisium recommended to her child became resonant. This case was reported by Lida Moniava, director of the House with a Lighthouse Foundation.

“I came to the post office for a package on the weekend. She was told that the warehouse is closed, come on Monday. Lena felt that something was wrong. But there is nothing to do - the child needs medicine, and there are no analogues in Russia,”Moniava wrote on Facebook.

When Elena returned to the Moscow post office on Chelobityevskoye Highway on Monday, employees of the Customs Service's drug smuggling department were waiting for her. After five hours of interrogation at the post office, the security forces arrived at the "smuggler" home, where they seized the system unit from the computer.

There are medicines in Russia to stop seizures, but they all caused the boy to have stomach bleeding. Frisium, which does not give such side effects (with an active substance called clobazam, whose circulation in Russia is limited) is not registered in the country.

“Arseny Konnov’s mother a year ago and Misha Bogolyubov’s mother a month ago managed to be recaptured thanks to the attention of society. Their criminal cases were closed. But neither Misha nor Arseny have any medicines yet !! Targeted procurement from the Ministry of Health has not yet been made. Medicines are still not registered. Every day hundreds of parents call and write to the House with a lighthouse, whose children need frisium, sabril, diazepam microclysters and other drugs not registered in the Russian Federation. We have collected information about 2,100 patients who are taking these drugs. Instead of seven, which the Minister of Health Veronika Skvortsova spoke about a year ago,”said Moniava. (Note: in August 2018, the minister said that only a few children need unregistered epilepsy drugs in Russia.)

If the Russian government does not take urgent measures, tomorrow the country will open 2,100 criminal cases against the parents of terminally ill children. And it will be a shame for the whole world, the public figure believes.

For the past four years, Russia has had laws regulating the import of drugs that are not registered in the country. Due to their acceptance, many Russian online pharmacies stopped taking orders for unregistered drugs. For violation of Article 6.33 of the Administrative Code, a fine is from 70 to 100 thousand for citizens and from one to five million rubles for legal entities. The maximum punishment under Article 238.1 of the Criminal Code is eight years in prison.

The existing procedure for transporting medicines for personal use is very complicated, and not everyone can go for them on their own. And when using mail, Russians run the risk of becoming involved in a criminal smuggling case. In fact, drugs that are needed to treat mental disorders, allergic and oncological diseases, as well as important antiepileptic drugs, were banned. There is also a mechanism for individual procurement of drugs abroad with the permission of the Ministry of Health on the basis of the decision of the council of doctors, but doctors are afraid to include unregistered drugs in written opinions and, at best, give oral recommendations.

As for the story of Arseny, the Ministry of Health has traditionally disowned the family of a sick child. Moreover, as stated in the department, all cases of prescribing drugs unregistered in Russia by doctors will be checked. "The Ministry of Health of Russia will conduct a thorough analysis of all illegal cases of prescribing unregistered drugs by doctors before the consultation," the ministry said. They also added that resolving the issues of drug registration is the exclusive right of drug developers and manufacturers.

“The Ministry of Health, as always, hid under a bench, relieving itself of all responsibility for the fact that the drug was not available in Russia. Developers and manufacturers should be the initiators. And this is what the department says, which has dozens of so-called chief specialists and so-called experts. And it is they, specialists and experts who should run to officials and shout: this must be registered,”said Alexey Erlikh, head of the cardiac intensive care unit of the city clinical hospital №29 named after Bauman, about the scandalous situation.

According to Saversky, if there is a need for a drug, then it is the state that must take measures to ensure that this drug is registered, or even change the conditions for the circulation of drugs. “Having established that only pharmaceutical manufacturers and their representatives have the right to register a drug, the state shifted the problems of its regulation onto citizens. And none of them is immune from absurd accusations,”the expert said.