Press Release, 18.09.2023

Photo: The rally organised by the Tomsk branch of Yabloko /Photo by the Tomsk Yabloko Press Service

The rally was organized by Vladimir Petrov, deputy of the City Council of the city of Seversk from Yabloko. Several hundred people opposed the actions of the administration of the Siberian Federal Scientific Clinical Centre of the Federal Medical and Biological Agency (SibFNKTs FMBA). The centre includes the Seversk Clinical Hospital, as well as the Medical Rehabilitation Centre and the Treatment and Prevention Unit in Tomsk. The centre has been headed by Viktor Avkhimenko since February 2021. The protesters are dissatisfied with the quality of health care and the level of salaries of medical workers.

The participants of the rally stated that low wages and illiterate policies of the leadership of the Siberian Federal Scientific Centre and the FMBA contributed to the outflow of professional medical staff from the Siberian Federal Scientific Clinical Centre of the Federal Medical and Biological Agency, which significantly reduced the quality of medical care provided to citizens of the Seversk.

“The current head of the SibFNKTs FMBA of the Russian Federation V.A. Avkhimenko turned out, in our opinion, to be an incompetent leader, performing incomprehensible actions/inactions that lead to the outflow of highly professional doctors from the SibFNKTs, ineffective use of funds allocated to the SibFNKTs, including compulsory medical insurance fund. With a general reduction in the structure of SibFNKTs, the management staff is incredibly bloated; tens of millions of roubles are spent on its maintenance. Leasing contracts from the “team” of V.A. Avkhimenko raise huge doubts from the point of view of their effectiveness for the activities of the SibFNKTs and their compliance with the requirements of normative acts. We demand that they be checked by the competent authorities and the necessary decisions be made,” the resolution of the rally ruan.

The resolution of the rally was sent to the President of the Russian Federation, the Chairman of the Government, the head of the state corporation ROSATOM, the head of the Federal Medical and Biological Agency of the Russian Federation and the governor of the Tomsk region.