“This is such a mess that has not been seen since birth”: Russian pensioner compared Soviet and modern medicine

The sphere of Russian health care has undergone a number of changes since the times of the USSR, and modern reforms have not had the best effect on medicine. According to the publication Prufy.rf, according to Russian pensioners, this is due to a reduction in state funding for this area.

“I feel like it’s such a mess that I haven’t seen it in my life,” said 75-year-old Ufa resident Nikolai Isaev. – Whatever comes up, at first glance, it is considered good and reasonable for people. But in practice, this is a sharp deterioration.”

So, for example, in the Union, visiting a polyclinic was easier: “you come to the polyclinic to any doctor, you sit (in line) for 15 minutes, maybe even an hour, but you will get (to the doctor) on that day.” Now, he added, waiting for a doctor’s visit can drag on for a week, and sometimes it’s impossible to get an appointment at all.

In addition, he added that it is impossible to do without pre-registration, even though there is no queue. The pensioner is also outraged by the fact of a preliminary visit to a therapist before being examined by narrow specialists. This, according to him, the already week-long waiting in line for the notorious appointment postpones the visit to the desired doctor for another week or longer.

According to him, earlier it was easier to get to narrow-profile doctors: it was possible to come to them for an appointment immediately, without first visiting a therapist. Isaev believes that such a measure leads to a workload of therapists and an increase in the burden on them, and this, in turn, causes a collapse and crowds of patients in hospitals. Thus, according to him, “people are cut off from medical care.”

He also pointed out that earlier it was possible to undergo a full examination in one hospital, but now there are no more than three narrow specialists left in polyclinics.

“Everything was spread over three clinics, which are sent to Nizhny Novgorod in different parts of the city. Here, grandmother, go there, ”Nikolai Petrovich ironically.

Isaev also expressed concern about the lack of production of medical devices in the country, which include devices, devices, equipment, materials and other products used in the treatment of citizens.