Meeting of the Presidential Council on the implementation of priority national projects and demographic policy.
Meeting of the Presidential Council on the implementation of priority national projects and demographic policy
Dmitry Medvedev’s opening remarks:
Today we have a very important item on the agenda: development of high-tech medical aid. We’ll also discuss some related issues, such as the results of the programme to reduce the rate of deaths from diseases of the circulatory system and tasks for the future.
Cardiovascular diseases are one of the main causes of physical disability and premature death. People die at different ages, but experience shows that many deaths can be avoided. A major role is played by the quality of healthcare, especially at the grassroots level, the speed with which an ambulance arrives and the opportunity to receive high-tech aid in one’s own region or nearby.
Dmitry Medvedev: "To improve healthcare we have set up a network of such centres, thereby making high-tech medical aid accessible to people in different regions."
Our task is not to establish high-tech medical aid centres in every village. This would be impossible and irrational. We should distribute these centres evenly throughout the country and ensure access to them for people from the most different regions. This is the main goal.
To improve healthcare we have set up a network of such centres, thereby making high-tech medical aid accessible to people in different regions. I think we have achieved a certain amount of success. We’ve spent substantial federal and regional funds to increase the scale of high-tech medical aid. In 2006, which can be considered a point of departure because this was when we started dealing with national projects, 60,000 people received high-tech medical aid, whereas this year it was provided to 500,000 people. This is an increase of more than eight times.
Dmitry Medvedev: "We’ve spent substantial federal and regional funds to increase the scale of high-tech medical aid. In 2006, which can be considered a point of departure because this was when we started dealing with national projects, 60,000 people received high-tech medical aid, whereas this year it was provided to 500,000 people. This is an increase of more than eight times."
There are reserves for stepping up this work. Targets were determined by guiding documents, including presidential executive orders. The task is to increase the number of people that receive high-tech medical assistance by 50% in the next year and a half: from 500,000 to 750,000. This is a considerable increase, especially now that the budget is tight. We should clearly understand how to reach this figure. We cannot adopt an extensive approach here, but must use more sophisticated technology. We must involve in this work not only medical workers but the entire scientific community, as well as expert and charitable organisations.
Now I’d like to say a few words about high-tech medicine. The figures are impressive, and we’ve tried to distribute centres evenly across the country. Federal projects have been followed by regional ones, and this is very important. We’ve just been to the neurosurgical centre in Tyumen. This is a modern modular centre outfitted with top-notch equipment that allows it to perform the most complicated surgeries. I’d like to make a special mention of its doctors, who are its main asset. It has wonderful doctors and excellent equipment.
Dmitry Medvedev: "Today we have 122 federal and 287 regional medical centres that render high-tech aid."
Today we have 122 federal and 287 regional medical centres that render high-tech aid. We should efficiently use their potential for the treatment of both adults and children. This concerns all centres. Not so long ago we saw the cardiovascular surgery centre in Kaliningrad. I hope it will reach its full capacity as soon as possible. It should operate as a multi-profile institution that renders medical aid to people in this region. If this centre works well, people from other regions will come to it. We looked at the map to see who visits the Tyumen centre. The main flow comes from Siberia and the Urals, but people from Russia’s central and north-western areas and the Far East visit it as well.
A number of regional and territorial hospitals have equipment that allows them to operate as multi-profile high-tech centres and provide service for the people of entire regions. We should support this trend and help not only centres built with federal money, but hospitals like these as well.
The second point I’d like to make is that under the Health National Project and a programme on vascular diseases launched in 2008, we have managed to overcome the negative dynamics of deaths from circulatory system diseases. We have reorganised the specialised aid system and have established local and regional vascular centres. From 2008 to 2012 the death rate decreased by one fifth. This is a good result.
Dmitry Medvedev: "Under the Health National Project and a programme on vascular diseases launched in 2008, we have managed to overcome the negative dynamics of deaths from circulatory system diseases. We have reorganised the specialised aid system and have established local and regional vascular centres."
According to Rosstat (the Federal State Statistics Service) in the nine months of 2013 almost 23,000 fewer people died of circulatory system diseases as compared with the corresponding period in 2012. But there are regions where the death rate has grown rather than decreased. They have failed to achieve the desired effect despite measures adopted uniformly throughout the country. It is necessary to determine why this happened, what mistakes they made and eliminate this imbalance.
We must help the Ministry of Healthcare and our regions to resolve this problem by developing a network of regional and local vascular centres. We’ll concentrate efforts in this area in the next three years. We must be more meticulous in determining our priorities in order to reach the next level. Of course, these centres should have enough doctors and nurses.
It is very important to envisage these measures in the revision of the healthcare programme. Vascular and other high-tech centres should employ the best specialists because their qualifications and responsibility play the key role. Regions should carry out their own programmes. It is very important to grant housing to medical personnel. We’ve discussed one such programme in Tyumen: Medical City. Apart from medical institutions, it provides for the construction of housing for medical workers. It is very important to keep qualified personnel in the regions rather than prompting them it to leave.
Dmitry Medvedev: "According to Rosstat (the Federal State Statistics Service) in the nine months of 2013 almost 23,000 fewer people died of circulatory system diseases as compared with the corresponding period in 2012."
We must also decide on the amount of funds and a mechanism for spending them. These funds will be channelled into specialised aid, including high-tech assistance, starting in 2015. We should look at how these funds will be spent to predict requirements in high-tech aid for the next few years and see how much high-tech aid is granted today.
It's clear that advanced technology allows treatment of complicated diseases that were only recently considered incurable. Therefore, the Healthcare Ministry and the Academy of Sciences should prepare a list of the most promising types of high-tech assistance and treatment methods, and elaborate proposals on introducing them into practice. They should suggest a mechanism for this.
Of course, we must upgrade the production of high-tech medical equipment and expandable materials that are required for the treatment of patients. I’m referring to stents, catheters and the like. Now all countries in the world are cooperating. No country produces everything domestically. But when most expandable materials are made abroad, this is insulting and unacceptable for this country. We have the necessary technology and production lines and must simply pay more attention to and invest in this issue.
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