Disturbed by your medical care? Try out Russia’s, courtesy The Moscow Times:
According to the State Statistics Service, from 2005 to 2013 the number of health facilities in rural areas fell by 75 percent, from 8,249 to 2,085. That number includes a 95 percent drop in the number of district hospitals, from 2,631 to only 124, and a 65 percent decline in the number of local health clinics, from 7,404 to 2,561. …
But it gets worse.
The Audit Chamber reports that some regions even lack mobile medical teams to provide care in remote areas. When local train service was canceled to many smaller towns in the winter of 2013-14, residents of tiny Novosokolniki, Nevel and Opochka in the southern Pskov region literally lay down on the railroad tracks to force passing trains to stop and carry them to cities with hospitals.
But it gets even worse.
In fact, the “optimization” process has affected not only “unprofitable” medical facilities, but even those with the latest equipment and the most highly qualified personnel. Moscow Cancer Hospital No. 62, one of the best of its kind in Russia, recently had to shutter an entire department even though patients were already waiting in line for weeks to receive treatment.
It’s a depressing report, and it’s certainly not an invitation to move to Russia. The real question is whether a country as large as Russia can provide an adequate health care system, or if it’s just sloppy carelessness – or if the values of the culture work against a good system.
(h/t WorldPress.org)
