Health Care in Russia.
Health care in Russia, both preventive and curative, is available to the whole population. The most distinctive feature of it is the attention paid to prophylaxis. One of the main tasks in the fight against various diseases is the early detection of the first signs of disease. We pay much attention to the health education of the population. We believe that is one of the main available methods of preventing the spread of diseases. For this purpose the press, cinema, radio and television are very helpful.
The basic medical unit in our country is the polyclinic. Polyclinics are large medical centres employing many doctors and nurses. Polyclinics have their own laboratories and X-ray, physiotherapy, surgical and dental departments. We have polyclinics for the adult population and for children. Ambulant patients are seen at the polyclinic by district doctors. Patients who are seriously ill are visited by their district doctor at home. The doctor works 6 hours a day. For the district doctor this is made up of 3 hours seeing patients at the polyclinic and 3 hours in visiting patients in their homes.
The emergency ambulance service operates day and night and is free of charge. The ambulances are equipped with diagnostic, respiratory and anaesthetic apparatus, as well as blood-transfusion and other devices, which enable the doctor to give emergency surgical and medical treatment.
There are several specialised hospitals in Russia for the treatment of particular diseases – infectious and psychiatric diseases, cancer and ophthalmological diseases and others. The Mother-and-Child Health Care Centre is in Moscow. This Centre deals with not only routine problems of obstetrics and gynaecology but also with research in the normal physiology of a female organism starting from an early stage of development. The main task of this centre is to ensure the birth of a healthy child.
At present, there have emerged a number of private diagnostic and consultation centres, general hospitals and specialised clinics. Medical and health care is provided in line with compulsory and voluntary medical insurance programmes set up by the state via private insurance companies.
