Subjects include providing wider access to mobile medical care and transport provision for medical services.
Dmitry Medvedvev’s introductory remarks:
Meeting of the Government Commission on Healthcare
Good afternoon. The Government Commission on Healthcare meets at the Moscow Clinical Hospital No. 67 today. We will talk about issues that are important not only for Moscow, but for our regions as well.
Our healthcare is plagued by problems despite the numerous decisions that we have adopted recently. Please note that these issues need to be discussed openly and in a constructive and friendly manner with our citizens and civil society – not just with the expert community. We need to make sure that people understand changes occurring in the healthcare industry.
At a Government meeting on October 17, we approved the 2014-2016 Guaranteed Free Medical Care Programme. These guarantees provide equal access to healthcare services for everyone. But what is the equal access all about? It’s not a matter of principles, but rather physical abilities, such as the ability to get a medical service in any part of our vast and fairly complex country. Today, we will discuss how the principle of access to healthcare in our country is implemented. We will talk about the mobile medical services, including such a technically challenging issue as medical aviation. This is an important issue for our country because the population density is low in many regions. Whenever an emergency medical care is needed, doctors occasionally have to travel far using a variety of improvised transport means. Let alone that preventive care in such cases is becoming a real challenge.
Dmitry Medvedev: At a Government meeting on October 17, we approved the 2014-2016 Guaranteed Free Medical Care Programme. These guarantees provide equal access to healthcare services for everyone. It’s not a matter of principles, but rather physical abilities, such as the ability to get a medical service in any part of our vast and fairly complex country.
To resolve this problem, the regional health development programmes for 2012-2020 provide for organising over 200 mobile medical units and rural health posts. I’ll give you some figures right away that you may hear later from the minister of healthcare or other colleagues. There are 27 mobile health centres in Russia (about one-fifth of what we need), 43 mobile medical units (about one-third of what we need), and 22 mobile rural health posts (one-sixth of what we need). Thus, there’s still a lot of work to be done. One more figure – the level of provision with mammography equipment stands at a low 28%. Still, with the assistance of mobile units, the doctors were able to see more than 340,000 patients this year, which is a major step forward. This, of course, is far below our actual needs.
Mobile medical units and rural health posts provide primary healthcare to rural residents who live in the villages with populations under 100. Whenever we make our decisions, we must always keep in mind that they are also Russian citizens just like everyone else.
Yesterday we spoke about the internet and the need to reach practically every village, and today we are talking about healthcare. Incidentally, they are interconnected because the use of telecommunication technology makes it possible to provide long-distance medical care and this is very important. We have just seen an example of this in a hospital. Moscow is a dense city but even here sometimes it takes hours to get from one place to another. This technology allows doctors to contact each other, look at an X-ray image and decide on treatment quickly (all this seems very convincing). Not to mention cases when the distance between some settlements, say a regional centre and some village, may be hundreds of kilometres.
Dmitry Medvedev: “There are 27 mobile health centres in Russia (about one-fifth of what we need), 43 mobile medical units (about one-third of what we need), and 22 mobile rural health posts (one-sixth of what we need). Thus, there’s still a lot of work to be done.”
We have received specialised vehicles. Ms Skvortsova said they are different – both of Russian and foreign make. We have just seen them. These are shuttle buses for carrying patients to hospitals, “health boats” and “health trains”. By and large, I think we should develop different forms of transporting patients because our country is very diverse and it is easier to get to some places by sea or river.
I’d also like to discuss air ambulances. Quite recently, on Wednesday, I held a meeting on regional aviation. We’ve made progress in this regard as well. Air ambulances are part of regional aviation. All in all, we planned to spend more than 12 billion roubles on regional aviation, including small air fields. This is a handsome sum but still not enough. Nonetheless we’ll continue supporting the industry by paying budget subsidies to offset the cost to airlines of purchasing or leasing aircraft and helicopters. If we install special medical equipment on them, they could be used as air ambulances. We should consider the international experience of transporting people to hospitals. We had air ambulances in the Soviet Union and they were effective. In large cities (not only in villages) they help provide medical treatment quicker. Take helicopters, for one. Regrettably, emergency medical aid is often delayed in conditions of heavy traffic, especially in the event of traffic accidents.
So our task is to bring medical centres and equipment closer to the busiest and most hard-to-reach places. Emergency aid should be provided as soon as possible – during what is called the golden hour. At any rate, we should be striving for this.
Dmitry Medvedev: We should consider the international experience of transporting people to hospitals. In large cities (not only in villages) they help provide medical treatment quicker. Take helicopters, for one.
I have already mentioned long-distance consultations as another area of work. Telecommunication technology makes it possible to conduct local consultations that are very important for choosing treatment options, and organising medical conferences and seminars.
It is very important for the regions to develop high speed communications, as I’ve already said. Yesterday I met with Government members and invited governors to discuss the need to overcome what is called digital inequality. In this country it means not only the inability to go online and get information. It could be a life-and-death situation because of the vast distances involved. I’d like to point out that this is not just a concern of the Healthcare Ministry alone, or this Government alone. All authorities, including regional authorities, should help resolve this problem.
This is, in brief, what I wanted to say in the beginning of the commission’s work.
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