Russian propagandists talk almost every day about the construction of new outpatient clinics and polyclinics in the occupied Crimea, but they carefully keep silent about the fact that there is no one to work in these medical institutions. Why do Crimean doctors not want to go to the countryside, how do programs to “import” doctors from the Russian hinterland work, and how does all this affect the health of Crimeans? We interviewed both doctors and patients.

Every year, Moscow-controlled collaborators on the peninsula report on the construction of paramedic stations and outpatient clinics in Crimean villages. At the same time, the construction of each modular first aid post with two rooms is being presented in the information space as the “project of the century.” And at least four times - at the stage of planning, beginning of construction, nearing completion, and grand opening. Dozens of villages, hundreds of publications and stories. This creates a false impression that the occupiers are very concerned about the health of Crimean residents.

However, the real level of “concern” is usually manifested the very next day after the grand opening of another outpatient clinic. Villagers who expect that now they will no longer have to spend half a day traveling to the district center and waiting in lines, find the doors closed. There are absolutely no doctors willing to work in rural areas, and the stations are “temporarily” closed.

““I asked the village council when our rural health center will open. But no one can really say anything. If the district hospital finds a paramedic who wants to come here or live here, he will work. And if it doesn't, it will remain closed until better times come. They've been looking for a year now, and they can't find one,” a resident of a village in the Razdolnensky district shares her observations.

There are at least two reasons for the lack of doctors who want to go “into the fields”. The first and main one is that there is a shortage of personnel at all levels of the health care system. Therefore, those who want to treat people do not have to go to the rural hinterlands of the peninsula - there are plenty of offers in more attractive places. The second reason is the ridiculous allowances for working in the countryside - 750 rubles per month (less than $7).

“Last year, we opened a rural health center in the village of Lychebne. It's not exactly in the middle of nowhere - the Tavrida highway is nearby. But it is still empty. Who would want to go there from Bilohirsk, for example, if even the city clinic is short-staffed? People quit even such institutions and go to paid clinics, not to mention the villages,” says one of the employees of the Bilohirsk Central District Hospital.

“This can be beneficial only for those who have come from outside. And then, perhaps, only to those who are completely dense and penniless, for whom work in our villages will be a blessing compared to the taiga. But there will still be a question about their competence, because any adequate doctor is now in demand and can easily find a well-paid job in his or her region, rather than going to a place unknown to work in a village for a penny,” says an employee of the Dzhankoy district hospital who is familiar with the problem of staff shortages. 

Similar conclusions are reached by Crimeans themselves, who have encountered similar characters in their rural outpatient clinics. “When a certain Mr. Gaptrakipov was appointed head physician in our district, he brought his brother, other relatives, friends and acquaintances from Bashkiria. One of them came three times a week and held a reception in our village. It seems to me that my dog has a more thoughtful look than this “doctor”. And the whole hospital was like that. It's good that my daughter lives in Feodosia - she went there for treatment,” says a resident of one of the villages in Leninsky district.

There are no options for the situation to change for the better. Last year alone, the number of medical workers decreased by at least 520 people. The year before that, about a thousand resigned. And the number of patients is the same. And all of them do not go to newly built empty rural health centers for a certificate or analysis, but go to district hospitals, creating an excessive burden on the remaining medical workers.

To this should be added a cumbersome system of bureaucracy that produces queues, a crooked document management system called “Promed” that, instead of reducing the number of doctors, has added work for them, incessant complaints from annoyed patients to all instances, and high inflation. All of these factors will further accelerate the outflow of the remaining staff in the near future, turning not only rural medicine but the entire healthcare system of the peninsula into one continuous “Potemkin village” with beautiful hospital facades but no treatment.

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