Author: Honored Journalist of Ukraine Volodymyr Katsman
Pandemic exacerbated the already problematic relationship between Ukrainian doctors and the Ukrainian state
Ukraine is discussing a new trend that has been brought into its life by an increased number of patients with coronavirus infection and the economic crisis accompanying the pandemic.
The number of doctors and health workers who get sick with coronavirus has sharply increased because they have not been provided with necessary protective equipment in state clinics and hospitals and who overwork from unbearable working conditions, who often simply cannot reach their workplace or get there for hours. Cases when laboratory assistants or health workers fainted from fatigue and dehydration right at the workplace become more frequent, since those 11 (!) laboratories across the country that can detect coronavirus work almost around the clock.
Ukraine at the same time was shocked by scandals related to the criminal negligence (or, perhaps, not just negligence) of those officials who blessed the sale of the entire reserve of protective medical supplies – gauze masks, special gowns, respirators and other things – to other countries. Literally on the eve of the announcement of an all-Ukrainian quarantine, the last 3.5 tons of gauze masks and respirators intended for export from the country were detained in Boryspil. Law enforcement agencies are considering cases regarding sale of strategic stocks in such a crucial period. The very high government officials and even people’s deputies were charged …
The chaotic quarantine measures taken by local authorities aggravate the situation. The movement of public and intercity transport is almost paralyzed. Meanwhile, doctors who work in clinics and hospitals of large cities, simply cannot get to their workplaces from the suburbs. This is especially difficult for junior and mid-level medical staff, since their real salary does not exceed UAH 5,000 – UAH 6,000 (USD 180 – USD 220) and they are not able to go to work by catching a ride or by taxi. Nurses and laboratory assistants are tired of standing in lines for transport for hours (no more than 10-20 passengers are allowed to ride in trolley buses, trams), and subsequently faint at workplaces.
The hospitals themselves are ruined, dirt and have poor sanitation, experiencing lack of basic hygiene conditions not to mention the dilapidated medical equipment. Sometimes it seems that X-ray apparatuses in a district clinic somewhere in Kherson region or Kirovohrad region have been assembled and mounted either by Wilhelm Röntgen itself or by his peers. The hospitals understaffed, there are not enough diagnostic specialists, doctors are massively leaving for other countries. Funding from the center was discontinued due to the so-called reform of Suprun, a former Minister of Health and an American citizen who illegally performed her duties for almost 4 years, and, according to many Ukrainian medicine experts, simply eliminated state funding for Ukrainian medicine. The current Minister of Health, Yemets (a well-known doctor), tried to resign several times, because he called the health care system dilapidated and ineffective.
It would be enough to say that one of the patients with coronavirus who has returned from abroad, was unable to diagnose illness at an early stage in a district clinic. The wrong diagnosis made much later than necessary caused ineffective treatment with increased doses of antibiotics and resulted in a coma and subsequent death.
Many people are certain that the coronavirus pandemic is just a reason to state the more than depressed condition of Ukrainian medicine. Former adviser to ex-president Yushchenko, doctor Bohomolets, believes that the introduction of large-scale insurance is a salvation for Ukrainian medicine.
It is clear that strategic medical supplies must be replenished in the near future. All this takes time and money, or rather, considerable time and even more significant funds, which, as you have guessed right, are simply does not exist, while available funds are melting by a growing pandemic.
The question of whether the sick will survive the pandemic will be decided in conjunction with the question of whether Ukrainian medicine will survive it at all.
So the people have a bitter joke: they say it’s much worse to get to a regional hospital for treatment than to get infected with a coronavirus … To someone it is a joke, and to someone it is a bitter reality of survival in inhuman conditions.
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