Yesterday Prime Minister Vladimir Putin visited a new building of the Turner Children's Orthopedic Research Institute in the city of Pushkin, near St Petersburg. This centre, equipped with 440 beds, is the only one of its kind in Russia. The new building's construction cost about 1.4 billion roubles from the federal budget, but it will bring the total number of beds up to 580. Similarly, it will be fitted out with the latest foreign equipment (mostly German and Dutch), which will allow doctors to upgrade the quality and increase the number of operations carried out. Accompanied by Healthcare and Social Development Minister Tatyana Golikova and St Petersburg Governor Valentina Matviyenko, Mr Putin had a look around at the premises of the new building.
In the intensive care unit, he asked: "What kind of salaries do the doctors get?"
"They receive at least 26 thousand roubles, but some make 70-80 thousand roubles," Mr Baindurashvili, the institute director, replied.
The new building will be disinfected for a few days, after which it will admit its first patients. One of the institute's top managers told Izvestia that one centre, even with a new building, is not sufficient for the whole country.
Alexander Latyshev