Press Release, 22.01.2019

Statements of the Saratov regional branch of Yabloko on the situation in Russia’s health care in connection with the attempt of the authorities to close Children’s Out-Patient Hospital No 10 in Saratov

The practices of “optimisation” of health care institutions go on in Saratov, these come down to reduction of the number of medical institutions, hospital beds, reduction of the number of doctors and increase of the work load on medical personnel.

Recently, childern’s hospitals No 2, 4 and 6 have been closed under different pretexts in Saratov, and now there is a threat of closure in the form of association with another medical institution for children’s clinic No 10 in the Volzhsky district. The residents of the city perceive these transformations exclusively as a decrease in the overall quality of medical services in the field of public health, expressed in the impossibility of obtaining required medical assistance within in the required amount and within reasonable period.

In essence, this represents a violation of the right of citizens to free medical care in state and municipal medical institutions envisaged by Article 41 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, and the cynical enforcement of citizens to use the services of paid medicine. It is noteworthy that these transformations are taking place according to the plan The Decade of Childhood which is intended to improve the quality of the medical care provided to children.

In the situation when Russia’s budget expenditures on health care are consistently reduced (from 613.9 billion roubles in 2012 to 460 billion roubles in 2018), and presidential decrees imply an increase in the salaries of medical workers, the only way to implement presidential decrees is to cut staff and merge medical institutions. The rationale for this kind of “optimisation” is the so-called economic approach, when health care is viewed as a service and the concept of profitability of a medical institution is introduced.

We consider such an approach and such a health care policy to be absolutely unacceptable and demand an increase in the share and absolute value of health care expenditures in the budget of the Russian Federation!

We demand to stop the destruction of the health care system in the form of elimination (enlargement, “optimisation”) of medical institutions (hospitals, maternity hospitals, clinics, dispensaries, etc.) regarded as reasonable savings, and respect for the constitutional rights of citizens!

We demand to preserve children’s out-patient hospital No 10 in Saratov in its full functionality with preservation of the entire range of medical equipment, equipment for laboratory research and retaining all narrow specialists in the staff!

We demand respect for the person, which manifests itself in the attitude of the state to every person at birth and in illness!