If you answer the question of what industries in Russia you could be proud of at different times and you can be proud now in addition to ballet, astronautics and hockey, then you can talk about military medicine. The level of medical care and its effectiveness in military hospitals in our country have been high ever since these institutions began to appear in Russian cities. The quality of medical services provided by military specialists was not questioned either during the existence of the Russian Empire or during the Soviet era. It would seem that if the industry has such a glorious history and brings obvious benefits to the citizens of the country, then it needs to be supported and developed by all means. However, the term "optimization" has reached military medicine, and this term, as we know, is such that it often provokes, let's say, surgical intervention in social organisms without any anesthesia.
Optimization of the military medical sphere with the previous structure of the leadership of the Ministry of Defense boiled down to the fact that instead of implementing a program to develop the industry, to improve the system of training specialists and introduce innovative methods of medical care, massive cuts began in everything that could be cut, and even that not - too. The medical institutions of the Ministry of Defense, one after another, began to lose high-class specialists, falling under the pressure of optimization: fewer staff - more salaries for those who remain in their places. A peculiar increase in wages due to a very large-scale dismissal of colleagues caused and continues to cause obvious bewilderment among military doctors.
In an interview with a journalist of our publication, a former employee of the military medical institution of the Moscow Military District shared information that the system for reducing the personnel of military hospitals under the former Minister of Defense has gained such momentum that the term "optimization of workers" is the mildest name that could only be replaced the real state of affairs.
The 40-year-old military surgeon of the highest category fell under the "optimization" cleaning, having almost 20 years of experience in military medical institutions behind him. The man who saved the lives of hundreds of servicemen who ended up on the operating table after the hostilities in the Chechen Republic, Dagestan, Ingushetia, after air accidents, road accidents and explosions; the man, whose hands brought people back literally from the other world, today is forced to work … as an assistant locksmith in a private auto repair shop! Why did Russian military medicine suddenly cease to need such a highly qualified specialist is a mystery that lies in the intricacies of the military reform, when all the "superfluous" can be sent "to rest" in accordance with the wording "optimization of the personnel structure."
For obvious reasons, military doctors, and all those who are not indifferent to the progress of the reform, expressed satisfaction with the steps of the new defense minister, recalling the actions of the previous minister in terms of reforming military medicine with a strong word.
Sergei Shoigu, after familiarizing himself with the steps that were taken by his predecessor, came to the conclusion that if the painful issue is not dealt with immediately, then all military medicine may be on the brink of survival. That is why one of the first orders of Sergei Shoigu was first to suspend and then to cancel the decision to "move" the Kirov Military Medical Academy from the Northern capital to the Leningrad region (Gorsky village). Various Russian media, including Voennoye Obozreniye, have repeatedly written about such a move. The staff of the medical academy expressed bewilderment at why it was necessary to transfer the educational institution, which also practices direct medical care of citizens, to the region. After a series of corruption scandals related to financial fraud with real estate in the Ministry of Defense, materials appeared in the press that, perhaps, the building of the Military Medical Academy was greatly "liked" by some of the officials, and therefore could be realized as non-core. One can imagine the extent to which someone could warm their hands on the implementation of a historic building in St. Petersburg …
Sergei Shoigu decided to stop the "move" of the St. Petersburg Medical Academy. Kirov and instructed in the most careful way to deal with the feasibility of disbanding about 30 military medical institutions that provide medical services to thousands of military personnel and civilians. If not for the order of the Minister of Defense, then these medical institutions would have to stop their activities by the end of this year.
Shoigu himself decided to analyze in more detail the issues related to the process of reforming military medicine in Krasnogorsk near Moscow. Here is located the famous all over the country Vishnevsky Clinical Hospital, which belongs to the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. The minister said that the reform process itself cannot be painless, but the task of himself (as a minister) and others responsible for the reform process should be related to ensuring that the reform is carried out in a balanced manner. The updated ministry says that people who find themselves out of work after the disbandment of military medical institutions should be provided with an equivalent job in the relevant field, and patients would not be left alone with their illness after the disbandment of military hospitals.
Sergei Shoigu says:
“We must be aware of the implications of this alarming trend. No specialists - no quality service. All the identified problems require special attention."
Obviously, in such a situation, the issue of an individual military surgeon, who suddenly found himself behind the reform board and was forced to earn a living by far from medical practice, needs to be addressed in relation to all military doctors who, no doubt, found themselves in a difficult situation.
So, Sergei Shoigu instructs his subordinates to stop flogging fever, and begin deliberate actions to analyze the current situation in the military medical industry. Obviously, the minister could not remain indifferent even after the figures announced by the acting. Vyacheslav Novikov, head of the Main Military Medical Directorate of the Ministry of Defense.
Novikov announced that the situation of military doctors actually began to deteriorate back in 2009, when, according to one of the orders, the categories of the staffing nature of medical officers were downgraded by at least one level. Naturally, this was reflected in the income level of most military doctors. The Ministry of Defense has undertaken to increase the incomes of medical officers in a radical way: by reducing the number of doctors in such a way that today even Novikov cannot give the exact number of these reductions. However, even the reduction in the number of military doctors, for some reason, did not lead to a serious increase in the remuneration of those who were fortunate enough to remain in their jobs. The fact is that the level of funding for the military medical industry from the budget, according to Vyacheslav Novikov, has more than halved. This figure indirectly gives an idea of the real scale of the reductions that have been made in the industry.
According to the correspondents of Rossiyskaya Gazeta, about 17 Russian regions have completely lost the medical facilities of the Ministry of Defense. This has led to the fact that about 400 thousand (!) Servicemen and military pensioners are now forced to go to the already overcrowded civilian medical institutions. One can imagine the degree of increased workload on civilian health workers … And if in some regions of Central Russia military pensioners, theoretically, without any problems can afford to seek medical help in civilian clinics and hospitals, that is, there are many regions where the place of residence of a person to the settlement with the nearest hospital at least several hundred kilometers. Yakutia and Chukotka are vivid examples of this.
After reading information of such a negative nature, the Minister of Defense immediately ordered to allocate 1.4 billion rubles for the purchase of new medical equipment, to equip military hospitals with graduates of medical universities, to resolve the issue of the need to put into operation the so-called hospital courts, to analyze in detail the very need to reduce the number of military medical institutions in certain regions of the country. In addition, Sergei Shoigu said that the Kirov Military Medical Academy in St. Petersburg should remain in its place, additional funds will be allocated for its development. Shoigu insisted that the authorities of the Northern capital, together with the Department of Property of the Ministry of Defense, find reserves of city real estate for the expansion of the educational institution.
In Krasnogorsk, Sergei Shoigu also announced that the most successful military medical centers should return the status of federal budgetary institutions that had been taken away from them next year, which made them dependent on the local financial "microclimate".
Such orders from Sergei Shoigu cannot but rejoice, because every year the military reform was carried out for military medicine it became more and more alarming. Today, Minister Shoigu is transferring the reform in a separate area, in fact, to manual control. After working in the Emergencies Ministry, he is no stranger to solving such pressing issues, and therefore we will expect positive results and hope that experienced military specialists will return from markets and garages to perform their professional duties in well-equipped military hospitals and clinics.
