Paul Goble
Staunton,
August 21 – Even though the annual budget of a single St. Petersburg hospital
is 1.5 times as large as the entire medical budget of Afghanistan, Andrey
Nalgin says, the medical care Russians get in the first is in many cases far
worse than that offered to victims in Afghanistan, one of the poorest countries
in the world.
Identified
as a Russian blogger, Nalgin draws this unflattering comparison in the pages of
today’s Novyye izvestiya and suggests
that the situation is even worse because the Russian hospital he provides
pictures of is in one of the capitals and medical care in rural Russia is much
worse (newizv.ru/news/society/21-08-2018/vopros-dnya-pochemu-meditsina-v-rossii-huzhe-chem-v-afganistane).
“In
2000, there were 10,700 hospitals in Russia; in 2015, there remained only 4400.”
The number of polyclinics fell from 21,000 to 16,500. Officials say this
consolidation allows for better care, but in fact, Nalgin continues, their
claims beg the question why a country like Russia can’t afford to do more than
Afghanistan does.
Another
blogger, Sergey Nikitsky, says that this post is “specially for Vladimir putin
and Sergey Sobyanin. I consider that such posts must be read in the
Presidential Administration and the Moscow mayor’s office” so that people there
will know the truth and thus feel compelled to take action.
No Russian should
have to live in a situation where the health care he or she is likely to be
able to get won’t measure up to Afghan standards, Nalgin and Nikitsky conclude.
Obviously, in publishing their posts, the Moscow newspaper agrees. For its part, Novyye izvestiya notes that there has not been any reaction from officials
from its earlier coverage of this issue.
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