General view of the Russian Cancer Research Centre in Moscow November 15, 2019. — AFP pic
“Children with cancer are being treated in atrocious conditions, with a lack of ventilation, mould on the walls and overcrowded rooms,” the hospital’s former deputy director of paediatrics, Maxim Rykov, told AFP. “The air vents had to be blocked up because the ventilation ducts hadn’t been cleaned for years,” said Tamara Tsvetkova, whose five-year-old daughter Veronika spent a year at the centre for leukaemia treatment and is now in remission.
Foreign-made medicines are being replaced with Russian equivalents, partly because they are cheaper but also due to a government requirement in place since 2015 to support the national pharmaceuticals industry. Russian doctors have generally avoided public disputes, despite very low pay by Western standards, but those at the Blokhin clinic are not the only ones speaking out and posting videos online.
But in some areas “people have to travel 200 kilometres” for medical help, said Ivan Konovalov, of the Alliance of Doctors trade union.From 2000 to 2018, the number of hospitals fell from 10,700 to 4,390, according to official figures, while the number of beds per 10,000 Russians dropped from 115 to 71.“In our country, a lot of money gets spent on the security forces, army and police and very little on health,” he added.
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