Healthcare

Rostov Region belongs to the regions in Russia, where taking care of the population’s health is one of the key objectives. Here the healthcare services are organized into a well-developed system capable of providing timely and high-quality help to the inhabitants of the region – one of the most densely populated areas in the south of Russia.

The healthcare reform involves modern management and economic tools, which create an opportunity to concentrate the efforts and resources on the development areas of highest social importance.

From year to year the planned subsidies into the region’s healthcare grow. In 2003 the total volume of investments in healthcare amounted to 6.6 billion rubles – that is, 22.3% more than in 2002.

The governor has set the objective of liquidating the imbalance between the healthcare services provided to the population in the towns and rural areas. In this connection, new treatment and diagnosis facilities, with modern equipment and motor transport, are being built in the rural hospitals and polyclinics. The existing facilities are being renovated and reconstructed.

In 2001 the Regional Prenatal Center was opened. The Center provides an opportunity for improving the quality of medical services to pregnant women and newborn babies with various forms of health pathologies, as well as premature infants. The investments in the center amounted to 19 million rubles.

A new maternity hospital was put into operation in Taganrog. The former medical facility of the “Rostselmash” plant was transformed into the Regional Hospital No. 2. That transformation involved 39 million rubles, including the 5.9 million rubles spent on the capital renovation of the facility. All this provided for the increase in the volume of specialized treatment and diagnosis assistance delivered to the population.

The hospital for war veterans underwent reconstruction and capital renovation and was supplied with modern medical equipment. The hospital opened new branches in Volgodonsk and Gukovo.

Various programs of reconstruction and renovation have been completed as part of the Project for Supporting the Regional Social Infrastructure, partly sponsored by IBRD. They included the reconstruction and renovation of the following facilities: the emergency hospitals in Shakhty and Novocherkassk, and the Regional Children’s Hospital, the Regional Clinic Hospital and the Central District Hospital in the Millerovskiy District.

A new Regional Tuberculosis Hospital with 340 beds was built in Rostov-on-Don. All the patients with active forms of tuberculosis were transferred into this hospital. Putting this facility into operation provided the solution to the problem of in-hospital care for patients residing not only in Rostov-on-Don, but also outside the city, in rural areas.

In compliance with the governor’s provision, over the next two to three years, all the central district hospitals in the region are going to undergo capital renovation.

In re-equipping the treatment facilities in the region, the main emphasis was given to the machines that can be used in organizing routine preventive inspections on a mass scale and are capable of diagnosing socially relevant diseases, such as tuberculosis.

Equipping the rural treatment facilities with ambulance transportation provided means that would allow fast transfers of the patients with needs for special care to the locations where they would be able to be given high-quality medical assistance.

The change in the number of people applying to the medical facilities can be regarded as one of the markers of the improvement in quality of medical care in the region. In 2003 the number of health complaints decreased by one third.