Yesterday, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin held a meeting with public health officials at which it was agreed that the quality control of medical services will be toughened – perhaps by a new government body set up for that purpose.
"For remuneration, one can get practically any permit for any product or service by submitting dubious and often forged documents to the supervisory bodies," Vladimir Putin said. "On the other hand, opening a new clinic or introducing modern equipment, technology, and drugs can be very difficult and costly. Very often, an outfit bearing the proud name of a 'medical centre' turns out to be a fraud."
Overt corruption goes hand in hand with perfectly legitimate ways of "milking" medical entrepreneurs. In 2008 alone, the healthcare industry paid about 10 billion roubles to Rospotrebnadzor, the government's supervisory agency, for sanitation and epidemiological inspections.
"Of course, one should pick through this bloated 'bureaucratic enterprise,'" the prime minister said.
The most important task, in his opinion, is to identify areas where direct state control is necessary and then assess how to best protect the rights of citizens. All procedures must be optimised, and duplicating or redundant functions must be ruled out. For example, one could introduce a reasonable government duty, the size of which would depend on the specific character of the service. In most cases, it is possible to replace the licensing procedure with a notification-based procedure.
After conferring, government officials came up with a fundamental decision: to sever the connection between pay services and supervisory functions that are both currently performed by Roszdravnadzor and Rospotrebnadzor.
"At the same time, no agency today has the authority to supervise the organisation of medical activities, that is, to assess whether medical measures have been correctly implemented," Minister of Healthcare and Social Development Tatyana Golikova told journalists.
That is why the supervisory measures will be focused on the quality of medical service being provided. At the same time, liability, both administrative and criminal, for breach of standards and obligations will be strengthened.
"The administrative fine envisaged by the Code on Administrative Offences and the corresponding changes made to the Criminal Code must deter those who would deliver inferior-quality services," Golikova said.
Anastasia Savinykh