Critics warn that this will deter many young people from a career in medicine at a time when Russia\u2019s healthcare industry is already under strain.<\/p>\n
Backed by the ruling United Russia party and hailed<\/a> by Health Minister Mikhail Murashko as a timely solution to the healthcare sector\u2019s labor shortages, the law has been lambasted<\/a> by opposition lawmakers and medical professionals who left<\/a> over 1,000 negative reviews of the bill online.\u00a0<\/p>\n The law mandates all medical graduates in state-funded residency programs to complete their work placements at hospitals and clinics covered by state health insurance. Students who accept a state-funded residency must sign an agreement with a specific medical facility where they will undergo training upon graduation.\u00a0<\/p>\n For graduates outside Moscow and St. Petersburg, this can often mean signing up with facilities in small, rural locales.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI am a young man at the beginning of my life and career. I don\u2019t want to prematurely become an alcoholic living in some godforsaken village with no future,\u201d a medical student enrolled in a state-funded surgical residency in the Siberian city of Tomsk told The Moscow Times.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n If the medic or the hospital fails to fulfil the terms of this agreement, they would face a fine of three times the cost of tuition.\u00a0<\/p>\n Forcing medical graduates to work at regional or rural hospitals without guarantees of a decent salary, housing and other forms of support would discourage young people from pursuing careers in medicine altogether, the law\u2019s opponents argue.<\/p>\n They also warn<\/a> it could give rise to a healthcare system staffed with an increasingly unmotivated workforce and the emergence of semi-legal private healthcare providers employing unaccredited doctors.<\/p>\n \u201cI knew I would have to come back to my home region after finishing university, but with this law, I could be sent to work in a remote village. I am not thrilled about the prospect,\u201d said the surgeon in training, who requested anonymity.\u00a0<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tA student at Sechenov Moscow Medical University. Under the new law, students entering or currently enrolled in state-funded residency programs will be required to work in a hospital or clinic for up to three years<\/a> under the mentorship of an experienced colleague.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n The mentorship program will be limited to a set list of medical fields that the Health Ministry will define.\u00a0<\/p>\n While surgeons and oncologists are expected to remain in the mentorship program for the full three years, pharmacists and epidemiologists will be exempt from it altogether, according<\/a> to the latest Health Ministry guidelines obtained by Kommersant business daily.<\/p>\n For graduates who choose to do their work placements in villages, small towns or the occupied Ukrainian territories, the length of a mentorship program will be half as long as for those working in Russia\u2019s major urban centers, Kommersant reported.\u00a0<\/p>\n \t\tnews \t\t\t\tDespite Costly Programs and an Intensified Family Values Campaign, Russian Women Aren\u2019t Having More Children These lenient measures outlined by Kommersant this week were likely adopted by the Health Ministry in response to the major pushback against the law.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m doing my residency after graduating from medical college and working for three years as a paramedic. I don\u2019t want to have mentors,\u201d said a woman currently enrolled in a residency at Irkutsk Medical University.\u00a0<\/p>\n The student recalled undertaking a summer mentorship program while studying at a medical college, when students were nominally placed under the supervision of a department head.<\/p>\n \u201cIn reality, we were overseen by a young doctor who herself had only been working at the hospital for about three months,\u201d the student told The Moscow Times, asking to remain anonymous. \u201cIn the future, I\u2019m thinking about possibly switching to pharmacology, but many of my classmates are already considering leaving medical school altogether.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMedical students. A medical student from Barnaul, the capital of southern Siberia\u2019s Altai region, described the new legislative changes as \u201cdemotivating\u201d and \u201cunjust.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cMandatory work placements will not solve the problem of doctor shortages,\u201d the student told The Moscow Times. \u201cThis will only create new problems like fatigue, burnout and attrition of medical employees. Improved work conditions, salaries and housing will attract doctors to work in the regions, not coercive measures.\u201d<\/p>\n The law targeting medical students in state-funded residency programs is the latest in a series of policy reforms that aim to attract more people into the medical profession and deploy them to places suffering from acute staff shortages \u2014 the smaller towns and villages in regions further removed from Russia\u2019s capital.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n In 2012, Putin ordered<\/a> to increase the median salaries of doctors to twice the average of the region in which they are employed by 2018.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Health Ministry launched the Rural Doctor Program the same year, promising<\/a> a one-time payment of up to 2 million rubles ($25,000) to doctors who commit to working in rural or remote settlements for at least five years.\u00a0<\/p>\n In practice, \u201cnone of this has worked out the way the government planned,\u201d said Judyth Twigg, a professor of political science at Virginia Commonwealth University and an expert on Russia\u2019s health system.\u00a0<\/p>\n More than a decade later, most of Russia\u2019s regions still can\u2019t<\/a> meet the medical personnel salary bar set by Putin. For many doctors, the incentives offered by the Rural Doctor Program were not enough to make working at hospitals with dilapidated infrastructure and abandoning their connections to colleagues worth it.<\/p>\n \t\tnews \t\t\t\tPutin Signs Law Introducing Work Placement Requirements for Young Doctors The new law appears to be the latest temporary fix for a healthcare crisis that requires long-term strategic planning by Russian officials, Twigg said.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt’s not uncommon for public funding for training to carry with it an obligation to fulfil some kind of mandatory state service. That happens in different places around the world\u2026But here, [the Russian government] is trying to talk people into going into the medical profession to begin with and struggling with that,\u201d Twigg told The Moscow Times.<\/p>\n This has been compounded by the full-scale war in Ukraine and the Western sanctions that it precipitated.<\/p>\n \u201cBeing a doctor is so much harder when sanctions have made it so much more difficult to get the basic pharmaceuticals, instrumentation and materials that you need to treat your patients effectively,\u201d Twigg said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Yet like many ripple effects of the war, Russia\u2019s regions and ethnic republics are expected to bear the brunt of the new law for medics.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt is not an issue for people here or in Moscow,\u201d a radiologist from St. Petersburg told The Moscow Times when asked about the consequences for him and his colleagues.\u00a0<\/p>\n A medical student from St. Petersburg also expressed uncertainty when asked about the possible negative consequences of the law.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cPeople will be searching for ways to turn this into an advantage. They will find loopholes,\u201d he told The Moscow Times.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cStaff shortages are an eternal problem in medicine,\u201d he said. \u201cThere will always be too few medical workers. Only if we are paid millions, then things might actually change.\u201d<\/p>\n A Message from The Moscow Times:<\/p>\n Dear readers,<\/p>\n We are facing unprecedented challenges. Russia’s Prosecutor General’s Office has designated The Moscow Times as an “undesirable” organization, criminalizing our work and putting our staff at risk of prosecution. This follows our earlier unjust labeling as a “foreign agent.”<\/p>\n These actions are direct attempts to silence independent journalism in Russia. The authorities claim our work “discredits the decisions of the Russian leadership.” We see things differently: we strive to provide accurate, unbiased reporting on Russia.<\/p>\n We, the journalists of The Moscow Times, refuse to be silenced. But to continue our work, we need your help<\/a>.<\/p>\n Your support, no matter how small, makes a world of difference. If you can, please support us monthly starting from just $2. It’s quick to set up, and every contribution makes a significant impact.<\/p>\n By supporting The Moscow Times, you’re defending open, independent journalism in the face of repression. Thank you for standing with us.<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\tContinue\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t Not ready to support today? \u00d7<\/p>\n \t\tRemind me next month<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tThank you! Your reminder is set.\n\t\t<\/p>\n![\"
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSergei Kiselev \/ Moskva News Agency<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tYaroslav Chingaev \/ Moskva News Agency<\/p>\n
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