Doctors Take To The Street

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

Activists from three professional associations of medical workers announced the launch of an All-Russian campaign in defense of public health. On Saturday, a picket was held near the building of the Ministry of Health, and a flash mob was unfolding in social networks in support of the rally “AGAINST - LIES AND CORRUPTION, FOR - Dignified Medicine!”, Which will be held in Moscow on October 14. Actions are also planned in other cities of the country.

Photo: Facebook /

Activists from three professional associations of medical workers announced the launch of an All-Russian campaign to protect public health in the interests of doctors and their patients. On Saturday, a picket was held near the building of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation in Moscow, a flash mob was unfolding in social networks in support of the rally "AGAINST - LIES AND CORRUPTION, FOR - decent medicine!", Which will be held in Moscow on October 14. Actions are planned in St. Petersburg and other cities of the country.

The picketing of the Ministry of Health was attended by activists of the Alliance of Doctors, the Interregional Trade Union of Health Workers Action and the League for the Protection of Doctors, as well as representatives of initiative groups of patients - a total of 56 people. They held posters dedicated to the problems of Russian health care - the continuous layoffs of medical workers, the lack of funding, and the low availability of medical care.

According to Anastasia Vasilyeva, chairman of the Alliance of Doctors, the destructive "optimization" of healthcare continues across the country: there are not enough medicines in state clinics, examinations are being cut, commercialization and corruption are flourishing, and the salaries of ordinary doctors are only growing on paper. In recent months in Moscow there have been reductions of experienced doctors and scientists at the Federal State Budgetary Scientific Institution "Research Institute of Eye Diseases", at the State Budgetary Institution "Center for Speech Pathology and Neurorehabilitation", the Federal State Budgetary Institution "Institute of Surgery. AV Vishnevsky ".

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The rights of students and graduates of medical universities in the country are being violated, says Vasilyeva: “due to the sharply increased prices for postgraduate specialized education, the almost total reduction of budget places in residency, the abolition of internship, future doctors are forced either to leave their specialty altogether, or without having the slightest experience, to start medical practice as district therapists, thereby "plugging" the personnel gap."

In addition, people are outraged by the abolition of the early seniority pension for medical workers, despite their professional experience and harmful working conditions. Andrei Konoval, co-chairman of the Interregional Trade Union of Health Workers, recalled the unfair and non-transparent system of remuneration in the social sphere, "chronic overload and over-exploitation of ordinary doctors." “There is a separate issue of wages in federal medical and scientific institutions, where, according to our data, it is often lower than in health care facilities subordinate to the authorities of the subjects of the federation,” said Andrei Konoval. He also recalled that the pension reform is severely hitting doctors: with the exception of some categories, most of them will increase the retirement age by 5 years.

According to Semyon Halperin, President of the League for the Defense of Doctors, "the results of the criminal privatization of Moscow health care are no different from the results of the privatization of industry, everything was plundered, destroyed and abandoned." At the same time, the authorities are doing everything to "redirect the indignation at the low quality of health care to ordinary doctors." In particular, a bill is being prepared to introduce a special “medical” article into the Criminal Code, which will open the way for further criminalization of the medical profession”.

In support of the October 14 rally and the entire campaign against the optimization of medicine, activists are conducting a flash mob, posting posters with the hashtag # out on October 14 on social networks, as well as with a problem that the protesters consider the main problem of domestic medicine. For example: "Provide patients with drugs and examinations!", "NO commerce in public hospitals!", "Low salaries - overloading doctors - a blow to patients!"

In general, the initiators of the All-Russian campaign in defense of public health in the interests of health workers and patients identified the following topics:

1. Failure to comply with the "May decrees", low salaries of medical workers in the regions, discriminatory salaries in many federal medical and scientific institutions.

2. Negative aspects of reforming and "optimization" of Moscow medical institutions that hit patients (remoteness from the place of residence, inconvenient logistics, untimely many studies and expert consultations, etc.).

3. Corruption that takes away funds from the health sector.

4. Downsizing, mass layoffs of employees in order to "save" and commercialization.

5. Unreasonable criminal prosecution of medical workers.

6. Financial "terror" of medical institutions by insurance companies.

7. Labor overload, lack of effective labor rationing in the interests of patients and health workers.

8. Systemic problems of ambulance (incomplete composition of mobile teams, elimination of specialized teams, reduction in the total number of teams, worn out vehicle fleet, etc.).

9. Elimination of internship and limitation of the possibility of university graduates to obtain a specialized specialization (high cost of residency).

10. Low level of funding for the public health sector.