№ 193 (3135)

07.12.2005

"To say the truth, we would be finished without medicaments and food, which our relatives bring for us from home”, - heard the “Evening Kazan” reporters in the hall of the hospital for war veterans in the Isayev Street. An old man, wearing a dark-green Japanese sweater – all the rage in the sixties years of the last century, smiled bitterly and shuffled away to his ward. “It is shameful…” – admitted the head physician of the hospital Farid Zakirov, after the patient had gone away, and guided us through his subject territory.

By the moment, when I and our photographer came to the hospital, 112 beds from 115 were already occupied, and the 113th patient was being registered. The head of the department and the head physician of the hospital were discussing: “It does not seem to be exactly our case…” – “Yes, but they already had been everywhere, the cure is everywhere the same and useless and we have an opportunity to try out another cure…” I was listening to this talk and did not understand, how they can have an opportunity to try something out. I had a letter in my bag, written by the patients of the hospital, after all. It was brought to our editorial office by the disabled Great Patriotic War veteran Tan Yenikeyev. It was written there: the hospital is good, the staff is excellent, but there are no medicaments and even no food for an adequate ration there.

The veterans’ hospital was established 6 years ago by the city of Kazan. There are two hospitals of this kind in Tatarstan, the second one is in the city Naberezhnye Chelny. Both of them are municipal, and are supported by the means of the fund of Obligatory Medical Insurance (OMI) and of the city’s budget. Although in the other Russian regions such stablishments are supported by the republics. It was stressed by Farid Zakirov.

He demonstrated us his latest achievements: redecorations in the wards, new marble floor in the corridors (marble is not a luxury here, but the barest necessity - this floor is hygienic and “eternal”, the linoleum is scuffed away during two or three years and needs replacement).

He drew our attention to that fact, that the veterans’ wards have showers, WCs, and even lamp-brackets hang over the beds…

“We get the full financing within the limits of the state guaranties program” – explained Zakirov. “Yet in the selective surgery, only 86 Rubles a day are provided for medicaments. And our chronic invalids need three or four times more taking into account their associated illnesses. And I have to hunt up a medication for a patient, who would face the prospect of amputation without it, explaining to another one, that I gave his medicine to his ward neighbor.

Tan Yenikeyev told me the day before, what result does it have:

- Only an expensive French medicine helps me against the high blood-pressure. The pack costs 500 Rubles. I can’t afford it, but I can get a recipe in my policlinic, which allows me to get it free. But the recipe is prohibited at the time, when I am in the hospital, it is concerned that they have this medicament there. And they do not have it! I can’t decline hospitalization: If I neglect my disease, I will lose my legs. So I’ve just treated my legs and have been discharged ill, with the high blood-pressure… And so it goes twice a year.

The cheapest package of “actovegin” (25 ampoules) costs one thousand sixty Rubles today. At the beginning of the year it cost half the price. The surgical department of the Kazan hospital for war veterans needs 2 packs daily – every patient needs “actovegin”. Everyone also needs three or four different medicaments for treating underlying diseases and as many as this for treating concomitant diseases. At the beginning of the year the hospital had enough money to buy one or two medicaments for every patient, but now the “rate” fixed by the government of Tatarstan does not cover even the expenses for “actovegin” injections. The money provided to the clinic for this year was over in 7 months. The hospital already owes its suppliers 2.5 millions Rubles

Zakirov admitted that he did not realize himself, how he managed to supply the patients with breakfast, dinner and supper for only 28 Rubles a day: “I would compel from the person who thought it out, to have a dinner for this money. I would like to see how this person would manage it!” He also told us, how he could buy the required quantity of smocks, for the workers. Incredibly cheap! - For the exact amount of money outlaid. These smocks were laced by blind people. White ones - with black threads. Not only were the staff lucky to get new uniforms, but also the blind tailors. Who else would buy this stuff?

In the sitting of the Health Ministry last week the question were asked: “Could you, the minister, tell us, how should the hospitals plan their budget?” And the answer from the high platform was: “According to the norms, they are not cancelled yet, the local budgets have to find means for you”. Zakirov commanded in his accounts department: count, please, how much should we get from the budget according to the norms? The result was 14 millions Rubles. And the hospital has got only 5.

“Here the budget provides very few money for hospitals, and the OMI fund became the main source of the financing. No one else in the world came to this idea!” – the head of the surgical department Vyacheslav Pyrkov told me. – “In the USA such clinics are supported by the budget only, and these are the best in the country. Well, what about America! The veterans in Tatarstan are in the worse situation then even in the Moscow district: 423 Rubles a day are provided from the OMI fund there, and here, according to the state-guarantees program of the Republic, only 257…