JRL NEWSWATCH: “Coronavirus Crisis Strains Russia’s Soviet-Era Regional Health System” – Wall Street Journal/ Ann M. Simmons

Medical Symbol with Pole, Serpents, Wings, adapted from image at lanl.gov

“Doctors, equipment and basic supplies run short as cases climb; some facilities lack running water.”

“… The episode at Karabanovo hospital offers a glimpse into the dysfunction and inefficiency that plagues Russia’s health-care system as the country fights the new coronavirus … the world’s third-highest caseload after the U.S. and Brazil. Many front-line medical workers in Russia say their safety has been neglected and they feel overworked, underpaid and undervalued. … [T]he country’s rural regions … contrast with the quality of health care available in Moscow and St. Petersburg.  Rural areas had already been hemorrhaging medical professionals before the pandemic and have suffered the most from health-care overhauls introduced by … Putin. This restructuring was intended to upgrade the decaying system inherited from the Soviet Union, but it has instead largely failed, say medical professionals, health activists and opposition politicians. …”

Click here for: “Coronavirus Crisis Strains Russia’s Soviet-Era Regional Health System; Doctors, equipment and basic supplies run short as cases climb; some facilities lack running water” – Wall Street Journal/ Ann M. Simmons

 

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