Penza, 15 December 2017. PenzaNews. Two people in masks with the image of the head of the Ministry of Health of the Penza region Vladimir Stryuchkov brought a coffin and a funeral wreath to the building of the ministry in Nekrasova street on December 15.

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A sheet of paper with the words "Medicine of the Penza region" was attached to the coffin covered with wine red cloth. The inscription on the ribbon, which the wreath was decorated with, ran as follows: "To our medicine from the Left Front".

On leaving the burial box and the attribute of the mourning ceremony near the porch, the men left.

Commenting on the conducted campaign, the press secretary of the regional Left Front department Sergei Padalkin told PenzaNews that it symbolized the death and funeral of medicine, which were caused by the optimization of the health care system.

"Stryuchkov is not the main person to blame probably because everything comes from the top – from the federal ministry, but he is one of those who have something to do with this land, and he actively promotes the optimization," the interlocutor said explaining why there was a need for masks with images of the minister.

He added that movement representatives wanted to draw public attention to problems in health care.

"If we look at the statistics, we will see that in the last several years district doctors have been reorganized in 13 areas of the region. At the same time, district hospitals turned into outpatient clinics and medical-obstetrical centres. Morgues, maternity wards, surgeries and other departments are being closed. The number of beds has been reduced. There is an acute shortage of doctors, both narrow specialists and therapists,"Sergei Padalkin said.

He also drew attention to the fact that despite the deplorable situation, officials in charge of medicine constantly report about success.

"The perinatal centre, for example, was built on federal money. On the one hand, it is good and we welcome this. However, we are also saying that the number of hospitals in areas is shrinking, which is ineffective. Inter-area hospitals are created too far away, in Nizhny Lomov, for example, and people are forced to go from neighbouring areas for 50-60 km," the opposition activist said.

Sergei Padalkin added that the Left Frond was also indignant at the dismissal of Anton Stolyarov, doctor of the oncology dispensary, in support of whom activists had held protests before.

"We consider his dismissal a political process, and today's campaign is in part also dedicated to these events," he said.

Earlier the opposition had already held actions near the building of the Ministry of Health of the Penza region. Thus, in August 2015, activists of the youth public organization Modern Age Generation demanded that Vladimir Stryuchkov was dismissed from the post of minister unravelling the banners reading “Conscience cancer is untreatable!”, “Have software, need medicine,” and “Stryuchkov is hazardous to your health”.