08/26/2025
In Russia, from September 1, patients will be treated by secondary medical personnel without higher education. Paramedics will be able to replace a therapist, and midwives will be able to replace a gynecologist. They are allowed to see patients, collect medical histories, take tests, and even prescribe medications. And all because such a large and rich country lacks doctors. In some regions, the shortage is almost 50%, and there is nowhere to hire specialists. The main reason for the personnel crisis is low salaries and terrible working conditions. But there is no talk of salary supplements in the Russian Federation, all funds are directed to the war. The shortage is partially covered by migrants, but the Russian authorities want to ban them from working in medical institutions.
Read more about this in the OBOZ.UA article.
Paramedics and midwives will be equated with doctors
So, starting in the fall, Russians will be able to see not a therapist or pediatrician, but an ordinary paramedic. Pregnant women will be able to see an ordinary midwife in the office instead of a gynecologist. New specialists without higher education will legally conduct examinations, take tests, do cardiograms, make diagnoses, and prescribe medications.
And all because there is a shortage of medical personnel in Russia. And although the problem has been brewing for a long time, it has now reached alarming proportions. For example, in Chukotka, there is a shortage of 56% of medical personnel, and in Moscow – 28%.
The main reason for this situation is said to be the low salaries of doctors and medical staff, and the difficult working conditions in state-run medical facilities.
“We have to work 24 hours a day, seven days a week. And this is not a figurative expression. To earn our 100 thousand rubles, we spend the night in the hospital. Two people do up to 100 CT scans a day. They don’t just do them, they also describe everything. The equipment breaks down, there is no money for repairs, there is nowhere to get spare parts – sanctions,” complains a young doctor from Arkhangelsk.
A doctor from the Oryol region says that the hospital not only has no medicines, but there are not even thermometers to measure temperature.
“A pensioner comes in who has no relatives. And she needs expensive medicines that our hospital doesn’t have. No one will buy them for her, and I know that without them she won’t recover. So, I go to the pharmacy and buy her medicines with my 70,000 rubles salary. They tell me that I’m an altruist and an idiot, but watching her suffer and not being able to do anything is unbearable for me. I even bring my thermometers to patients because they don’t give them to us,” the doctor complains.
Russian surgeons say they have to buy surgical instruments themselves, or sterilize reusable scalpels. The gas station country simply doesn’t have the extra money to treat its citizens. Everything goes to war.
Due to poor healthcare, Russians do not want to work in hospitals and clinics. For example, 55% of medical school graduates do not go to work in their specialty. Unless they go into the field of drug or medical equipment trade – there is more money and less responsibility.
“You can’t lure young doctors to our poor hospital with anything. They don’t even go to a private one. “Older” doctors simply died out during Covid. No one gave them masks or disposable protective clothing in the first months,” shares the head doctor of a district hospital in Saratov.
“A huge country, but no one to work for”
But Russian medicine is not only famous for its poverty. The number of criminal cases against doctors has increased by 25% since 2023. Complaints are being filed against doctors on both sides. Investigators are opening criminal cases and dragging them in for questioning.
For example, 67-year-old pediatrician Nadiya Buyanova from Moscow was sent to prison for five years. The widow of a deceased SVO soldier wrote a slanderous letter against her.
Gynecologists are also suffering. Russia is currently fighting a battle for fertility, and doctors have been ordered to use any means necessary to dissuade women from having an abortion. If a doctor fails, they can easily open a criminal case against her. Gynecologists are shocked and are also leaving the profession.
Migrants, immigrants from Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan with diplomas, can cover the shortage of personnel. They are willing to work for less money and in any conditions. Currently, at least 7 thousand of them work in hospitals and clinics in the country. However, Russians complain that such doctors do not know Russian well, so it is very difficult to explain to them at the reception what and where it hurts.
Russian Duma deputy Sergei Mironov, however, is against this practice. He introduced a bill that would ban migrants from working in healthcare, pharmacy, and schools. The document was rejected. Because if thousands of migrants are released now, then no one will provide assistance to patients.
“It’s a huge country, but there’s no one to work with. Experienced doctors go to the Baltic countries themselves, and they still let us in there. Because their doctors go to work in Canada, Germany, America, and we can replace them. We’re also migrants there, but at least we know Russian,” says a doctor from Moscow.
Hospitals are closing, money is being sent to “SVO”
In fact, the main reason for the poor state of Russian medicine is a lack of funds due to the war.
To save money on their sick citizens, the Russian government “optimized” just last year, that is, simply closed 160 institutions in this area. Although previously no more than 30 were closed. Moreover, the leader in optimization is the Moscow region, where 20 medical institutions were closed.
Villages are mostly affected. District and inter-district hospitals are being closed, serving dozens of surrounding villages that don’t even have a paramedic station. Maternity hospitals are being closed, even though women are being forced to give birth.
In 2025, funding for the “Fighting Cardiovascular Diseases” program was halved, and for “Development of Healthcare Infrastructure” – by a third. All funds were redirected to “SVO”.
At the same time, the practice of forcing state employees to transfer their own bonuses to “SVO” continues in the Russian Federation. This also applies to doctors.
But salaries are growing at a tremendous pace, for example, for employees of enterprises that produce unmanned aerial vehicles. Here the bill runs into hundreds of thousands of rubles.
“Hospitals are closing, money is being sent to “SVO”
Everything is closing, all the money left over is going for the war, mafia land is the Titanic. The waves are licking the railings already… Hopefully, we can witness the disintegration of mafia land in our lifetimes.
“A pensioner comes in who has no relatives. And she needs expensive medicines that our hospital doesn’t have. No one will buy them for her, and I know that without them she won’t recover. ”
The kremlin propagandists keep claiming that health care is free in mafia land. Yeah it is free, as long as the envelope slides under the table.
Mafia land…