Excerpts from the transcript:
Government Coordination Council meeting on controlling the incidence of the novel coronavirus infection in the Russian Federation
Mikhail Mishustin: Good afternoon, colleagues,
Last week, at the annual press conference and direct line with the President, it was discussed that people in the regions are forced to buy medicines for the coronavirus with their own money. They are not given the necessary medicines for free, although they should be. Moreover, some medical workers engaged in coronavirus response are not receiving their due benefits.
Once again, I would like to draw the attention of the Minister of Health, the Head of Roszdravnadzor and the heads of the regions to the following: the federal centres allocates the funds for these purposes on time and in full – both to provide people with free medicines against the coronavirus, and for payment benefits for medical workers who actually take care of patients with this infection 24/7.
Two weeks ago, an additional 3 billion roubles was allocated for medicines for patients with the coronavirus who are treated at home.
It is important to buy medicines for January this year. This issue must be resolved before the New Year’s holidays. For this, the Government has given the right to the regions to make a 100 percent advance on the conclusion of the contract at the expense of the allocated funds.
We will also allocate over 52 billion roubles for special social payments to medical workers. These are the funds for December, January and February. Such a directive has already been signed.
Colleagues, your task is to ensure that both these funds and those allocated previously are transferred to the recipients quickly and in a timely manner. If you see that there are delays somewhere – solve the problem manually, in the literal sense of the word.
At the beginning of the spread of the virus, the Government provided additional insurance guarantees for medical workers, following the President’s instruction. This is a lump-sum payment that is given to doctors, paramedics, nurses and ambulance drivers – those who are tested positive while helping coronavirus patients. The Government additionally allocated almost 8 billion roubles for insurance payments this year, as well as in January and February next year. It is necessary to ensure that the medical workers who are supposed to receive these funds receive them on time. After all, people took risks to help others, and then they themselves caught the coronavirus. We need to provide them with the support they need.
The coronavirus response measures have shown that the development of the healthcare system needs to be combined with an update of the sanitary and epidemiological service. To effectively counteract the coronavirus and other infectious diseases, to predict the epidemiological situation in the country, we need modern laboratories and equipment, and most importantly, well-educated specialists who can resolve these problems. For this purpose, targeted training of students from medical universities has been launched; they will work in Rospotrebnadzor agencies after graduation. The Government signed a directive on the allocation of funds for additional payments for such students. More than 3,000 future medical workers will receive them.
