vlad.tribnet.com / Issue #154 / Social life / Reading article...

Primorians’ health is rapidly deteriorating, reported doctors and health officials at conference recently in Vladivostok, and participants proposed restructuring the krai’s whole health care system as a solution.

The problems are affecting people in areas ranging from heart attacks to suicides, said Vladivostok Medical University President Yury Kaminsky.

The rates of what doctors call “social diseases” – including alcoholism and venereal disease — have risen rapidly. In 1996, 40 times more syphilis cases were registered than in 1991. The number of alcohol psychoses quadrupled in that time. Tuberculosis grew by 8-10 percent, and among children it grew by 15 percent.

“This is a clear evidence of the society in trouble,” said Kaminsky.

The most widespread diseases involve the lung and cardiovascular systems. There were more cases of trauma, food poisoning and suicides in 1996 than in 1991.

The worst health situations are in Vladivostok, Partizansk, Dalnegorsk, Dalnerechensk, Arseniev, and the krai’s northern territories – areas in which unemployment is high and salaries aren’t paid. Sixty percent of an individual’s health depends on his lifestyle, while only 10 percent depends on the health care system, Kaminsky said.

“Obviously, our health care system is the strongest in the world: It has worked without financing for many years,” Kaminsky said, and the audience bitterly laughed.

From 1991-96, the population fell by 60,000 due to various factors, including mortality, and now amounts to 2,243,000 people. Since 1988, the birth rate fell by 50 percent.

The typical Primorian family now has an average of 1.8 children instead of the 2.5 necessary for the population growth. Only 40 percent of them are healthy, as opposed to 80 percent before 1991. The majority of the women of childbearing age (58 percent) cannot give birth due to various diseases. Out of 100,000 mothers, 80 die at birth.

Valery Prikhodko, the head of the krai health department, said the current health system is ineffective, although the number of doctors per patients is high (34.5 per 10,000 people). The system needs deep restructuring.

The conference suggested that the Primorye Duma and the governor guarantee the population free medical care. The conference proposed developing out-patient clinics and reducing the number of beds in hospitals.

Lyudmila Trenina, a spokeswoman for the Vladivostok health department, said, “Restructuring is probably the only thing we can do under our conditions. … Treating patients in hospitals is the most expensive alternative. So, it is reasonable to do more out-patient treatment, but the clinics should have the proper equipment for that.”

Under the proposal, the krai’s health care system would be financed through a joint health care fund which will accumulate money from sources including the krai budget, city budget and insurance funds. (The city will continue to fund psychiatric wards, drug addiction treatment centers, and venereal and tuberculosis clinics). Citizens would also contribute private money. Children’s and maternity clinics will be financed through insurance funds.

For 1998, the cost of free medical help amounts to 1,603,700 million rubles ($272 million). Fifty-four percent will come from medical insurance funds, 14 percent from the krai budget, and 32 percent from municipal budgets. The conference advised the krai administration to support the domestic manufacturers of medicines.