In Crimea, the occupiers left healthcare without funding due to the war

In the occupied Crimea, the medical system has been left without funding, with budgetary resources being directed to the war. Due to the reduction of payments and the ban on combining positions, the staff is on the verge of survival, while the management of the institutions is expanding the administrative staff at the expense of relatives.

This was reported by the Atesh movement.

According to the movement, the mood in the peninsula's hospitals ranges from panic to quiet hatred. According to agents, the occupation administration has started total savings on medical workers due to the lack of money in the budget. All resources are directed to the war, leaving civilian medicine without funding.

So-called "commissions on the validity of additional payments" are now working in the offices. Formally, this is a bureaucracy, but in reality it is a tool for cutting salaries to redirect funds to the front. Doctors expect that next month they will have to survive on their basic salary.

According to the movement, the staffing problems of hospitals used to be partially compensated for by combining rates, but now this practice has been banned. As a result, the work fell to those who remained, and the workload became unbearable.

At the same time, local "princes" find ways to enrich themselves. Chief doctors create administrative positions for their children and wives, who receive bonuses at the expense of ordinary doctors. While patients are being given intravenous drips, family contracts are flourishing in the offices.

Last year, ambulances were reduced in Crimea due to fuel shortages. Now medics respond only to critical calls. Hospitals were instructed to save fuel. People were advised to get to hospitals on their own, even if their condition requires urgent care.

The situation with healthcare in Crimea deteriorated last summer: more than a thousand healthcare workers are missing, and people cannot get help and medicines. Despite official reports on hospital staffing, hundreds of vacancies remain unfilled, especially in rural areas.

The issue of access to follow-up treatment for cancer patients also remains acute, as patients constantly face a shortage of modern medicines and a lack of specialized oncologists.

Анна Бальчінос