Group Members
This paper covers the cultural healthcare diversities capitalized on the current Russian study. Russia has more hospitals, health care workers and physicians than any other country in the world based on the per capita approach. Even though it has all this advantage, Russian population health has massively declined after the crumple of the Soviet Union. Capitalized on the major causative agents of such a massive decline, the basic pillars of revolution include the social, lifestyle and economic changes.
Main Text
Health Care System of Russia
Russia experiences a relatively lower state funding of the health care facilities to its population. Even though it has a well trained medical staff, Russia has not fully made use of these resources based on the lack of funds. One of the major setbacks in the Russian medical sector is the prevailing inequality rooted from history. Healthcare is however free to both the registered residents and citizens all across the Russian Federation (Field, 2009) . Due to the underpayment to the trained doctors, most doctors take bribe and extra payments so as to offer their services to the citizens.
The Russian healthcare care system comprises two major wings of operation. These wings comprise of both the State System and the Private healthcare. In the state system, the state funds all its employees who pay up to 3 % of the wages to the social tax. The government would then provide medical cover to the entire dependant family. The self employed and unemployed individuals are not covered and so have to fully cover themselves medically. The government only takes care of the basic healthcare. For proper healthcare facilities, individuals opt for proper private healthcare provision by specialists.
There are four basic healthcare providers in Russia. These include:
Rural Health station:
Rural Health station the basic services offered at the rural health stations include the basic medical check, routine examinations, addressing minor injuries as well as carrying out immunizations. The rural health stations have a capacity of serving up to total of 4,000 populations in total (Field, 2009)
Health Centers:
The Health Centers extend to cover a larger population cover in the rural area. The approximate coverage of a health centre in Russia captures 7,000 persons. Some of the major operations at the health centers include minor surgeries. In Russia, Health centers are often staffed by a midwife, a pediatrician, a therapist, a gynecologist and a set of nurses.
Urban Polyclinics:
Urban Polyclinics in Russia are the general service providers in the Medicare operation. The major activities executed in the Russian Urban Polyclinics include screening, chronic illness treatment, as well as on-going medical care. Based on the size, Urban Polyclinics have a capacity of holding up to 4 specialists in various fields such as obstetrics and cardio.
Special Focus Polyclinics
Special Focus Polyclinics are special medical units in Russia designed for treatment and caring for children. They are characterized with pediatricians who offer ambulatory pediatric care to the under 19 years.
There is an approximate of 17,500 pharmacies in the Russian Federation. Of these pharmacies, 60% belong to the local authority, 23% to the regional government while 17% are owned by the private individuals. In addition, there are about 50, 000 pharmaceutical kiosks. All inpatients are offered free provision of pharmaceuticals while the out patients have to buy them. Even though the supplies of drugs have increased due to imports to Russia, the purchasing power is low based on the poverty levels realized by the population.
Health Goals of the Russian Federation
In order to streamline the medical system in Russia, the Federation has come up with various goals focusing on improvements. These goals are geared towards ensuring an easy flow of the medical services to the entire population. The first goal is to harmonize the retail and the wholesale prices of pharmaceuticals. This is to ensure that patients achieve easy access to drugs irrespective of their financial standards. The next goal in this case is equality achievement. Through this goal, all parts of the country would be given equal treatment as far as the distribution of resources is concerned. This goal would assist the population all across the country to effectively access drugs.
An additional goal to be met in the Russian Medicare captures improvement of facilities for the disabled. A greater count of the population that has massively been affected by the poor health standards in Russia is the physically disabled group. In respect to Medicare facilities, the standards used by the Russian population are far much below the expected standards. Artificial limbs as well as the wheelchairs are scarcely supplied for the high demand balancing. Additionally, it is a common routine that wheelchair ramps miss out all together. In reference to the physical fitness and physiotherapy, there are just but very few sparsely positioned rehabilitation centers in the entire country.
Another goal is to reduce the rate of spread of HIV/AIDS. Although the rate of growth of HIV was so high back in 90’s, Russia reached its peak in 2001. Since then, the numeric data of population tested HIV positive has remained steady. The accurate number of HIV cases registered in Russia sum up to 350, 000 persons. In addition, the infant mortality rates have rapidly worsened to a ratio of 15.1 per every 1000 persons. Despite the poor healthcare state, Russia has in the recent past pioneered the most profound fields in medicine. These include heart and laser eye surgery. The Russian government seeks to minimize chances of contracting AIDS through educating the public.
The final goal is to raise the life expectancy rate as well as the male to female ratio. In the recent past, the healthcare status of the Russian population has drastically declined compared to many other developed nations. As a result of such a decline, vast numbers of diseases have turned to be common in the country making most citizens to live in great fear of contraction. The most prevalent diseases highly experienced in Russia include cancer, tuberculosis as well as heart infections. Since the collapse of the Union, the life expectancy of Russian citizens has rapidly fallen from seventy years to sixty five. In addition, the life expectancies differ by up to 16 years based on the part of country a person lives (World Bank report, 2009). The most prevalent portion of the population affected by this misfortune is the men. To a higher percentage, statistical research work reveals that Russian women live 13 years more than their male counterparts. As a result of the poorly managed healthcare facilities, Russia has the widest world gender gap globally (74.1 women: 60.4 men) (World Bank report, 2009). Through this goal, the Russian government is able to achieve better living standards for its population,
World Bank report published in October 2009.
Field, M. (2009). The healthcare and demographic disaster after-Soviet Russia: St. Martin’s Press.
Russian life expectancy figures Ross tat Retrieved on June 16, 2012.
