The opponents met at Vladimir Putin's Moscow Region residence.
Vladimir Putin invited Minister of Healthcare and Social Development Tatyana Golikova and President of the National Medical Chamber Leonid Roshal to continue their discussions of the bill "On Protecting Citizens' Health" at his Moscow Region residence in Novo-Ogaryovo. The second draft of the bill has spent the past twelve months being reformulated but has not yet been approved.
The bill became a source of heated debate after Leonid Roshal spoke virulently against it at a conference on healthcare. The next day, the Ministry of Healthcare and Social Development posted a collective letter denouncing Roshal's statements.
Disputes continued even after the National Medical Chamber joined the Russian Popular Front, giving Roshal an additional platform for challenging Golikova's policies. Roshal believes that the reforms are being implemented with too much haste. He says the bill does not properly differentiate between free and paid medical services. Golikova claims that existing legislation must be promptly amended. Otherwise, we will have to forget about modernising healthcare and, more importantly, raising doctors' salaries.
Vladimir Putin promised Roshal that there would be no undue haste. Yesterday, he did not repeat that promise.
"I know that you are actively discussing the basics of public healthcare. These are very active discussions, indeed! Honestly, I'm very glad that the professional community and public organisations have joined in the discussion on problems in healthcare," the prime minister said.
The draft law raises a number of issues. One of them concerns the partial reimbursement of expenses on utilities and housing to federal medical workers in rural areas. "Considering their modest salaries, I think this issue is well justified and must be resolved. I'd like the Ministry of Healthcare (I've already spoken to the finance minister) to make the relevant proposals. At any rate, we must prepare a support system that can operate until the salaries of rural medical workers reach the industry average for each respective region. Ms Golikova, please submit your proposals together with the Finance Ministry," Vladimir Putin instructed.
The prime minister then reminded those present that the law also concerns the implementation of programmes to upgrade the healthcare system and introduce new standards that are closely linked with plans to raise medical workers' salaries. "This is a very complicated issue, and the Ministry of Healthcare and the government as a whole cannot change all of these standards overnight. Therefore, it is very important for us to determine where to focus our attention, which standards to change, and in which regions. Salary levels are directly dependent upon these conditions. We need to understand how this will play out in practice," the prime minister said.
To that end, Vladimir Putin advocated the transfer of municipal powers to the regional level. "We must understand what will happen with property and with the delineation of responsibilities – who will be responsible for what – and prevent the creation of parallel administrative structures. We don't need them – we must improve the existing ones. Rather than scatter money around, we have to decide what will happen with property and how these issues will be resolved and regulated," he concluded.
Yelena Suvorova