Penza, 15 April 2016. PenzaNews. Insufficient financing is one of the critical issues in the Penza region healthcare system, suggested Sergei Degtyar, chairman of the health protection, demographics and childhood committee of the Penza region Civic Chamber, during the 2015 conclusion plenary meeting on Friday, April 15.

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“The first problem is financing. It was, is and will be ever-present. No finances means no quality help. Insufficient financing of healthcare was, is, and probably will be there in the nearest future. As for the job of the Health Ministry: in my opinion, it is adequate, they did all they had to do with these finances. That does not mean it is a good thing,” he said.

According to Sergei Degtyar, the region shows a decline in availability of specialized medicare, particularly in areas of the region, where most of the people live.

“The healthcare is slowly receding from the regional areas – the experts are leaving, the hospitals are closing down, the hospitals are getting smaller, and there are not enough hospital replacement measures in the regional areas. People have to go to the central city to get quality medicare,” the doctor explained.

The process of area hospitals merging with larger hospitals leads to people unable to receive medical assistance at their places of residence, he added.

“If there is an area, it needs its own hospital – and a decent one,” Sergei Degtyar stressed.

He also highlighted the transition of experienced doctors into private commercial medicare as one of the modern problems of healthcare.

Moreover, the member of the Civic Chamber pointed out that many doctors are subjected to a significant load related to various paperwork.

“The Russian Health Ministry is largely unable to influence the situation, but they make so many orders and documents to fill that we are swarmed by them, we are unable to work with them at hand. I am serious: the quality control measures give no positive effect whatsoever, many measures are just entirely random. This is the problem we need to solve in some way, I do not know how. Perhaps we need to expand the powers of regions. But this is one of the main problems,” he said.

Also, Sergei Degtyar suggested that the healthcare situation would not experience a significant decline in the nearest future, as medical insurance system payments will increase from 2.5% to 5.2%.