Russian Wounded Overwhelming Hospitals in the Rear, Terrorizing Medical Staff and Compromising Ability of Citizens to Get Treatment, Doctor Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Jan. 17 – Because the defense ministry does not have a network of its own medical facilities sufficient to handle the growing number of wounded returning from the front in Ukraine, Russian hospitals in the rear are being overwhelmed, often terrorized by their new patients and leaving ordinary Russians with even less care, one Russian doctor says.

            Speaking on conditions of anonymity to the Posle news portal, he says that the civilian hospitals have been ordered to treat the wounded but not given the additional resources to do so, leading to a degradation in care for all and causing many nurses and other medical staff to quit, the only avenue of protest they have (posle.media/vse-chto-my-mozhem-spryatatsya-i-zhdat/).

            In most cases, the civilian hospitals do not have sufficient specialists to treat the kind of physical wounds and psychological traumas the combat veterans have suffered, the doctor continues; and as a result, specialists in other areas, including gynecology, are being forced to provide medical care in areas without sufficient training.

            Still worse, many of the combat veterans come to the hospitals with their guns and create a hostile work environment; and some of them, the doctor says, are harassing nurses and even threatening them with rape. Hospitals lack adequate security arrangements and have been forced to call in the Russian Guard.

            After Putin’s optimization program and the ravages of the covid pandemic, Russia’s hospitals were not in good shape to handle normal caseloads. Now, because of the growing influx of the wounded, they are in ever less good shape – and there is little indication that Moscow is focusing on the problem or that the situation won’t deteriorate further.